Ghost of the Shadow Realm
by Kris Phantom
Summary: Ryou has more friends than just the Yu-Gi-Oh gang; well just one. He lives in a small place called Amity Park. ON TEMP HAITUS
1. The Letter

Okay, a new story!! Whoo!!! I'm onna roll!

For storyline purposes, all the Yu-Gi-Oh characters will be in their early teens, like Ryou is going to be 14 instead of 16 or whatever. But somehow, most of the things that happened in the show happened already (so, Battle City has already been conquered!!! And the yamis know who they are...I think. Bakura knows about his village. But that's as far as I can tell it goes. I didn't get to watch the ending to the original series.)

Disclaimer: I don't own YuGiOh or Danny Phantom. I don't even own a deck of cards anymore. I'm that sad… **Cries**

Ghosts of the Shadow realm

Chapter 1: The Letter from America

Ryou Bakura was sitting in his kitchen reading a letter that had come in the mail.

His yami appeared next to him. Crimson eyes raked over the other boy as Bakura tried to figure out what was up with his hikari today.

Finally he couldn't take the silence anymore.

"What are you reading?" he growled. Ryou didn't look up.

"A friend of mine from America sent me a letter," he explained, still reading the letter. Suddenly, his expression changed from happy to one of shock as he reread a part of the letter. Bakura ripped the letter from his hikari's hands and scanned through to the part that had shocked the innocent boy:

_--Yeah... about not writing earlier? D'ya remember when you said not to play around in Mom and Dad's lab? I forgot. I got caught in one of their inventions and... I'm kinda half-dead now—_

Bakura's own eyes widened. He lowered the paper and looked at Ryou.

"Your friend's kidding...right?" Ryou shook his head.

"He's not that creative," the hikari responded. Bakura raised the letter back up to finish reading it when someone knocked on the door. The yami growled as he walked to the door, unconsciously making himself more solid, and never taking his eyes off the letter.

He had the door open before Ryou could get up to save Bakura the trouble of getting mad at any innocent bystanders (i.e. girl scouts, Christmas carolers, etc) and sending them to the Shadow Realm.

Bakura merely glanced out of the door before realizing that whoever it was was shorter than his eye-level. He'd had to look down, but he didn't realize that fact at first. After all, not many of his light's friends were elementary-school sized.

Bakura pasted on the best 'I'm Ryou' friendly smile he could at Yugi. He was more than a little mad that he'd picked _now_ of all times to drop by. Yugi raised his eyebrow in slight confusion. Bakura could almost hear the conversation Shrimp was most likely having with the Pharaoh. Bakura _really_ didn't want to have to deal with Yugi's other half today. He was being good for once! I swear!

"Is there something wrong?" He kept his voice light and tried his best not to growl at the hikari. Maybe if he was nice, Yami might let him slide for once.

Violet eyes turned red as the Shrimp's hair spiked up more and he grew a foot to be Bakura's height in a flash of light. That's counting the ridiculous hair's height.

No such luck. Bakura's head found a way to bow with an animé sweatdrop on the back of his head all while hiding behind a piece of paper. Ah, his dignity is forever safe.

"Tomb Raider, what did you do to your host?" the Pharaoh asked. Bakura could've groaned. He almost did. Bakura, at least, had gotten the hang of Modern Language. He knew most of the slang that most kids spoke with. Yami, on the other hand, had not. Bakura couldn't help but wonder how the mortal fools of this millennia passed over him without too many questions.

Instead of answering the Pharaoh's question, Bakura pointed to the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room, and by default, the front door. While it was the truth, he knew that the Pharaoh's tendency to think the worst would make it amusing.

True to form, Yami Yugi's eyes widened.

Now Bakura wanted to laugh. His lips twitched a little before he stopped himself. Messing with Ryou's friends was far too easy. Hopefully this 'Danny' would know how to take a joke.

Bakura thought about the consequences of continuing to mess with the Pharaoh, but it was getting old and boring already. That and he didn't want to go back to the Shadow Realm. He blew air out of his non-existent lungs. The fact that he was able to surprised him a little. But he didn't let it show.

"I mean in the kitchen, fool," he said.

Yami Yugi didn't look convinced. Bakura guessed that the old fool didn't know how to materialize enough to converse with the outside realm on his own without taking control of his hikari. Bakura looked down at himself while pretending to still be reading the letter. He wasn't transparent in the least. He actually looked like he was real and guessed that if anyone other than Yugi were to look at him, they would see him as a normal person—like he was Ryou. Like usual. Only actually seeing _him_ with out Ryou's body to help in the whole 'oooh I'm real' thing.

The Pharaoh looked up at the other yami with most of the usual questions and accusations in his ruby eyes. Bakura didn't want to deal with the accusations, but he knew they were most likely what he'd hear come out of the boy's mouth. Bakura lowered the letter since he'd finished reading it so his fist rested on his hip.

"Well?" Might as well get this over with. Yami Yugi opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again with a thoughtful look on his face. Bakura guessed that Yugi was telling his yami to shut it with the lecturing. Or something along those lines.

"What are you reading?" Huh. The Pharaoh was trying for friendly conversation? Might as well humor him.

"Ryou's mail," he said simply. "Is there a problem with that?" The Pharaoh looked surprised that Bakura had used his light's name. Ryou was listening from the kitchen, mentally asking for Bakura to lighten up on the growling. The tomb robber knew that his hikari would like for the yamis to at least not be enemies and have something to do other than argue all the time. But Ryou wasn't so naïve that he thought it was possible, hence why he didn't annoy Bakura with it.

"I suppose not, but I was unaware that Ryou received letters."

Bakura stared at him. How stupid was this guy? Was he really the Pharaoh or was he on one of those 'you've been punk'd' shows Ryou usually skips by but sometimes watches on the TV? Yami looked far too serious to be joking, though. The King of Thieves sighed.

"Hang on. I'll get you proof," Bakura muttered as he went into the kitchen. Ryou handed him the envelope without a word. He didn't need to say anything.

He went back to the baka that had interrupted his reading and showed him the envelope.

The Pharaoh had a little trouble reading the English the return address was written in.

"Day-nigh?" That was what the 'Savior to the World' came up with when he tried to read the name. Bakura was almost afraid to know how he'd pronounce Danny's last name. Honestly, what did Yugi do in his English class?! Just duel that mutt?

"Danny, fool. Duh-ann-ie," Bakura spelled out for the 'dull-witted yami'. "'Y' is pronounced 'e' and sometimes 'I'." Yami cleared his throat, looking a little embarrassed. But he hadn't come to have his English skills criticized.

"While I must ask how you know so much English, Yugi did come to speak with his friend."

"And I don't count as a friend?" Bakura mock-pouted, feinting injury from the Pharaoh's word's. He 'recovered' enough to laugh slightly. "I'll get him." Bakura left the doorway, leaving the door invitingly open. Yami gave a soft snort as Bakura went into the kitchen. The Pharaoh thought for certain that Bakura was fibbing. There was a reason they needed hosts to 'hang out' with the living. It wasn't possible to create their own corporeal forms. At least, Yami didn't believe it was.

Bakura set the letter on the table in front of his apprehensive hikari.

"The Pharaoh's brat is waiting for you. Better go and tell him you're not hurt and that this place isn't booby-trapped."

Ryou nodded, understanding. Yugi worried too much. Bakura disappeared into the Millennium Ring before Ryou stood up and sighed. There was a reason Ryou preferred to answer the door. And it was standing right outside his house.

He went to the door where Yugi's darker half waited. A smile that was more than likely Bakura's tugged at his lips. He composed himself to speak to Yami without the other to think he was his own yami still. One would be surprised at how often Yami Yugi accused him of stealing something or threatening someone when it either was Bakura, someone not connected to them in the least, or no one at all. People can get scared for no real reason other than to be scared. And of course, the Pharaoh would never believe Bakura capable of feeling like doing something nice for some one else unless it was to further his own evil plans. Ryou guessed that Yami Yugi didn't believe in redemption.

Ryou reached the door and sighed again. The Pharaoh still hadn't relinquished control back to Yugi.

He looked at Yami, and then looked around him, as if searching for someone.

"Didn't Yugi come with you?" A genuine Ryou smile appeared on his face as Yami blinked before understanding. He nodded and relaxed his pose before the Millennium Puzzle glowed and Yugi smiled.

"Sorry, Yami doesn't trust him." It didn't take a genius to understand why.

Ryou shrugged.

"He worries too much. Bakura isn't _that_ bad."

"That's what I keep telling him. But it's always 'no, aibou. He's a thief and could hurt you' and all that."

"Well... he's right. Bakura _is _a thief, and he _could_ hurt you. But I don't think he will. He's after the Millennium Items, not the holders," Ryou said. That was one reason for Bakura to not hurt Yugi. The other is that Bakura had been forced around the pipsqueak (Bakura's words, not Ryou's) so much that he'd gotten used to seeing him everyday. Bakura didn't like it when things change like that. It reminded him of…things better left unsaid. But he did like it when things change in his favor. But... Ryou was threatened on pain of death to _not_ tell anyone that reason. It made it sound like he was getting soft. Which was bad for his reputation. Ryou gestured for Yugi to come inside.

"Do you want anything to drink or...?" Ryou prompted, trying to start a better topic for conversation than their yamis had. Yugi shook his head and Ryou noticed his arms were behind his back. When Ryou tried to see, Yugi moved just so he couldn't.

//The Pharaoh had his hands behind his back too. What's going on with them?// Ryou didn't have an answer, and when he tried to ask, Yugi changed the topic.

(A good fifteen minutes and one bored hikari/yami pair later)

"Okay. So... What was your other half reading?" Yugi was just as curious as his yami. They had been talking about a bunch of things—what Bakura was up to (that hadn't lasted very long), how school was going, and something having to do with the weather. Ryou hadn't been paying very much attention then. Bakura was trying to get him to let him take over for a 'more amusing conversation'. Ryou had to remind him that he'd start another argument with the Pharaoh and Bakura changed his mind.

"My mail," Ryou said without really thinking. He cringed. Dangit. He's been hanging around Bakura too long. Yugi looked up, into Ryou's brown eyes, probably wondering if they were red instead. In Yugi's head, no doubt, his yami was telling him to let him take over.

Yugi had gotten _far_ to predictable. Bakura, on the other hand, was as unpredictable as always. Like this week for example. He hadn't asked for control for anything. Ryou could only guess that Bakura was waiting for the right time to rob some really big company or something. But he could also just be tired and taking a break from defending his title as 'King of Thieves'. No one could steal stuff like him anyway.

Ryou had to get out of getting a lecture. And fast.

"No, really! He was reading a letter a friend of mine sent me!" Yugi somehow looked even more suspicious of him than the Pharaoh ever could. The Pharaoh wasn't exactly Ryou's favorite person. It wasn't that he didn't _like_ his friend's yami; it was that he didn't trust Yami Yugi to help him out when he would need it. Or to believe him when he was telling the truth. Like now.

"Ryou… Who sends letters?" the shorter hikari couldn't believe that someone their age would willingly write on paper to send something to a friend _through the mail_. Unless it was for something that wasn't legit or something... The guy who sent the letter had to be evil and in some sort of scheme with Yami Bakura. His own yami didn't even do that! Not when there was e-mail that could be typed and sent across the world in a blink of an eye! Not to mention... Ryou didn't have many friends, and Yugi was certain that he and his friends were the closest Ryou had to actual friends.

"Danny does," Ryou answered as if that answered everything. Yugi didn't believe that it was from someone not after the Millennium Items. Bakura was reading it, if that wasn't reason enough to not trust it. Whoever this 'Danny' was, was not someone Yugi wanted to meet.

"Can I read it?" Like he would be able to. It was written in English. But a strange feeling came from the back of his mind as Ryou snatched the letter off the table before Yugi could reach for it. It was his mail, darnit! Ryou's eyes caught a sentence after the revealing passage:

_Can you keep it a secret for me?_

Ryou_ knew_ there had been another reason to keep this letter away from the Pharaoh's prying eyes besides keeping his own privacy! Danny had entrusted him with keeping his secret, just as Ryou had entrusted him with the knowledge of the Ring. He would not betray that trust. That's what friends did for each other. Danny's new friends knew that as well as he did. At least, that's what he'd said in one of the previous letters. One that he'd gotten right after the Ring came along and Danny was told of it. Still, Danny said he hadn't told them about Ryou's 'problems'. Danny was a really good secret-keeper. Bakura must understand that as well. That feeling had to come from somewhere after all. If Jazz was the same way as he remembered her, then he could only hope she never read Danny's mail.

Okay, the next letter Ryou sent him would be in all Japanese. Jazz wasn't as good at reading it as Danny was. Jazz was amazingly closed-minded, even when she was eight. Danny was not like that. He was ready to learn the new language and culture. They were both six when he and his family moved to Japan, and they had met that same year and had become fast friends.

"Sorry, he asked me to not show anybody."

"But your hitori no boku was reading it," the 13-year-old whined. Ryou quickly thought up an explanation that would get him where he might be able to win this. How on Earth did their yamis not go crazy after all those arguments?!

"Danny said 'Hi' to him," he replied, folding the letter just so Yugi could see the _'Tell your other that I said hi!'_ and that he wasn't lying. "And anyway, Bakura doesn't like being left in the dark," he paused, taking his darker half's personality into prospective. "Figuratively speaking." Did Yugi understand?

The look he was giving Ryou told him no. Of course not. He sighed. Maybe Yami didn't take all the necessary precautions to keep his hikari safe. Like reading Yugi's mail in case it was dangerous. Bakura took a couple to make sure he wasn't killed, but that was what he was supposed to do. Did Yami Yugi not know the dangers internet presented against young children?

Well, if he did… Yugi'd probably never be allowed to go near a computer again. Keeping Bakura's smirk off of his face, Ryou changed the subject.

"I doubt you came here to argue about a letter?" Ryou prompted, determined to keep the Yugi out of his business. The shorter hikari's eyes lit up.

"Oh! Right! We're playing video games at Joey's and I thought that you might like to come," he responded. Suspicious letters (to Yugi and Yami) forgotten, the spiky-headed boy's voice was hopeful that he'd come.

/Is it okay if I go?/ he had to ask after all. Bakura might say no and make him stay.

//Yeah, yeah. When we come back, reply to that letter. I'm going to go to your soulroom and find where you stash your memories.// Or not. Maybe Bakura just couldn't say no to a hikari. Or maybe it was one of those unpredictable moments.

/Alright. Look by the TV. I thought I saw some VHS's over there. I might be wrong/ Ryou thought.

On the outside it seemed that Ryou was having a hard time deciding what to do.

He tapped his cheek as he mock-thought, since he had finished his conversation with Bakura. Then he lowered his hand as a small smile appeared on his face. He nodded and Yugi's face lit up with excitement. He had on a very broad smile when he ran out of Ryou's front door.

Ryou blinked once before he hid the letter in a drawer in the kitchen. Did he really see Yugi with a –no. He couldn't have had a cell phone. His grandfather had said that he couldn't have one. Ryou chalked it up to it being a trick of the light.

//Though it would explain why he had it behind his back// his yami said. //Well? Aren't you going to go with him?//

/Oh, yeah/ Ryou made sure the letter was where he could find it (he'd read it in more detail when he got back) and left to walk with Yugi, who was waiting impatiently outside his door. He grabbed Bakura's cloak since it was rather windy out.

"Come on! Everyone's waiting for us!" Yugi was walking down the street before Ryou had locked his door.

Ryou ran to catch up with the hyper hikari who had started to babble on about how great it was to get to just hang out without the Puzzle in any danger, yadda, yadda, yadda as soon as Ryou'd caught up with him.

They took a shortcut to the blonde boy's house. Joey Wheeler lived only a couple of blocks away from Ryou, making the whitenette wonder why they weren't better friends. Besides the whole 'Tomb Raider tried to kill them all' thing.

Ryou wasn't listening to Yugi as they walked. He was thinking of what he'd say to his friend. He hadn't heard from him in so long, he had thought that Danny had forgotten him. Ryou was really happy to have received that letter. That happiness must've been showing because the hum Yugi's voice had turned into (courtesy of Bakura) had stopped, making Ryou look at the shorter boy.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing, Yugi," Ryou answered. It was true, he wasn't thinking about anything when Yugi asked. That and...he didn't want to bring the letter back up.

"You're really quiet," Yugi observed, trying to figure out what was on Ryou's mind.

//No sh—ano...duh, Sherlock...// Bakura muttered in Ryou's head. Bakura had just barely stopped the swearword he wanted to say, remembering his hikari's dislike for vulgar language. Ryou looked ahead. Though, he was honestly surprised at Bakura's attempt to keep a clean mouth.

"Look, Joey's right there," he said pointing to a blonde boy who was waving his arms in the air. Even at this range, Ryou could see the look on Joey's face. It was one of welcome for Yugi, but one of discomfort for Ryou. Ryou wondered why Joey would still feel that way. It had been a while since Bakura's messed with them all personally.

Not that he didn't expect it.

Although... Witty banter (as Danny seemed to call it) did not count as 'messing with them personally' in Bakura's books. So right then they were free game.

As the two hikaris walked up to Joey, Ryou looked behind him. He saw Téa Gardener and Tristan Taylor standing by the door, where a girl Ryou's age stood on the inside. Téa and Tristan did not look very friendly for once. The girl—Serenity, Ryou remembered—didn't seem to know what to think.

Joey walked towards them and reached out to poke the whitenette's hair. Ryou didn't like it when anyone touched his hair but moved out of the way by force of habit.

"Hey, Yugue. How do you know we didn't get the evil Bakura?"

//Because if you did, mutt, then you wouldn't be standing there// Bakura muttered. Ryou couldn't believe that Bakura still didn't care about his friends.

/Yami!/ Ryou sighed. Joey would be able to hear it as Ryou looked at him.

//Fine, fine. I'll be good// then Ryou heard the soft click sound that was his yami's soulroom door. But that wasn't before he heard wheels spinning on stone. Bakura had found the memories, no doubt about that.

"I'm right here, you know," Ryou said, slightly annoyed.

"I know. Just makin' sure you're not gonna kill us all," Joey waved his hand dismissively. He looked straight into Ryou's eyes. Ryou blinked. "I think we _do_ have Evil Bakura..."

"What do you mean?" Ryou looked at Yugi, who was probably thinking along the same brainwave as the other hikari. Oh, no! The world is going to end! Pack some water, and keep an eye on your duel decks!

Yugi then made a silent 'oh' as he realized what Joey meant.

"Joey, Ryou's eyes are always like that," the small hikari said. Ryou couldn't help but think, 'always like what?' Joey blinked.

"Oh. Okay then," his voice gained a more natural (to Joey, anyway) excited happy tone. "Everybody inside! We have video games, food, and my sister's here so don't act like idiots," Joey said as he ushered the hikaris in after Téa and Tristan.

The 'idiot' comment was aimed more at Tristan than anyone else.

Serenity gave a small giggle at her brother's antics. After everyone was inside, she tried to balance several books in her thin arms. Before they could tumble out of them and hit the ground, however, Ryou was there to catch them. And one unbalanced girl.

"Please, let me help. You shouldn't try to carry so much," Ryou said, hoping Joey wasn't watching. Knowing the blonde, he would immediately accuse the poor hikari of hitting on her. Bakura dragged Ryou's eyes to the cover of the top book in his hand. Ryou blinked.

"'The Paranormal for Dimwits'?" Serenity sighed. At least Ryou didn't sound criticizing like Joey had. The albino helped the brown-haired girl balance on her own feet before fixing the books in his arms. Serenity led him to the living room, away from the partiers in the den, and sat down on the couch. Ryou noticed that she was blushing.

"Yes," she muttered softly. She didn't look too proud that she was reading it.

//Ask her about it. Danny mentioned ghosts and these memories don't show me much// Bakura practically yelled from his soulroom.

/You're done watching them already?/

//Yeah, now hurry up and ask!//

"So... umm... anything interesting in these books?" Ryou asked, listening to his yami. That and... Ryou liked ghosts. He watched those ghost hunting shows that come on the Sci Fi channel on Wednesdays. He learned a lot about ghosts—and electricity. He ought to try something like that in Bakura's room. As crazy as this sounds... Ryou thinks that Bakura's not the only spirit in there. _But_ it could easily be just Dark Necrofear there.

Serenity looked up to see if the boy was joking. He wasn't

"Yeah. I've read most of them. They talk about how ghosts are supposedly made and how to interact with them. The biggest book, 'Supernatural Passings', or something like that, is written in English and Joey can only read some of it." Bakura huffed in annoyance and forced Ryou's hands to move the books in his arms around as he sat down next to the girl. Ryou had caught the book in question.

"This one?" Ryou asked, as he was the one in control. He placed the other books on a cushion next to him as Serenity slid a little closer to see the book.

"Yes, that's it." Joey looked into the room, his eyes narrowed at seeing the pair on the couch.

"You can't read it either?" Ryou guessed. Serenity shook her head. "Would you like me to help you read it?" Ryou was just being his normal, nice, polite self, but Joey could almost hear him trying to ask his sister out. Of course, Joey would believe anything he wanted to. He slid into the room without them noticing.

Ryou opened the book and scanned the table of contents to see what the chapters where called. Serenity was about to turn the page for him, since Ryou didn't seem to want to, but Bakura gently grabbed her hand and pushed it back. See? Bakura's a nice guy. He knew when not to be too rough with someone!

"Please, let me," Ryou said before turning the page to chapter one. The book was written in American English—the same as how Danny wrote when he wasn't writing in Japanese, so Ryou didn't have too much trouble translating it into Japanese. Joey was behind the couch now and the hair on the back of Ryou's head (the part that stayed down) stood on end. He looked behind the couch. And lo and behold! there was Joey Wheeler, the wannabe-spy. "Hello, Joey. Do I want to know why you are behind the couch?" Joey cursed softly, making Serenity glare at him and the hikari raise an eyebrow. Where had Wheeler learned _those_ words?

"What are doin' with my sister?!" Joey hissed back at the innocent boy.

"Reading," Ryou said. He lifted the book up to show Joey.

"Like you read English..." he muttered. Ryou stared at him. Serenity giggled again. The boys turned to look at her.

"How about this... I let you borrow the book on one condition..." Evil was behind every word. Not that the hikari/yami pair noticed it.

"Okay, what's the condition?"

--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--=

What ever Ryou had been thinking (which was mostly 'what in Ra's name would she want?') it had not been this.

The whitenette was walking as fast as he could down the main street to get to his house. He was a man (well, boy) of his word. And this is where it had gotten him.

A long white braid comprised of three smaller braids (who knows how Serenity managed to tame the boy's hair like that) was his hairdo til he got home. She said he had to take the long way home. Past people he knew, people he didn't, people who knew him, and people that knew Bakura, ect., ect...

In short, even the yami was embarrassed.

Ryou's face was redder than anyone thought possible. And he had no doubts Bakura was the same way. Although... his face maybe red by fault of anger than embarrassment. Ryou hid his face with the newly acquired book. His bangs helped hide him as well. Yay for awesome bishie bangs!

When someone tried to walk his way, Ryou broke into a run to get to his house faster. He was _never_ going to trust girls again.

//Wise choice, Ryou. Very wise choice//

=============-----------------------=================--------------======-----=-=

Serenity is E-V-I-L!!!

Okay, I know she was probably OOC, but I don't really remember her very well. Did she even have enough time on the show to reveal her personality?

I would like some feedback!!

Danny will be mentioned better in the next chapter. Should I keep up the Ryou-torture?

Ryou: No more...please?

Bakura: Shuddup, Baka.

Be nice!!!

REVIEW PEOPLE!!!!

Ryou: Please!!!! *shows the most adorable, unable-to-say-no-to puppy eyes*


	2. A Newscast and Special Card Reading

I think this is going to be good, what with the—

Ryou: Don't tell them! It'll ruin the story.

Bakura: Why do you care?

Ryou: I want them to read it and be surprised.

Ryou: ...Uh, Bakura? Where did you get that knife?

Bakura: *hides knife* Whatever could you mean? I don't have a knife.

...

Okay...

One question though... I heard somewhere that Bakura plays with tarot cards. Is that true? Anyone know? I know he read Pegasus's deck like Tarot cards, and that he has an Ouija board magic card set...

Disclaimer: Don't own Yugioh or Danny Phantom. This would be on TV if I did, and I'd be rich and famous and—

Bakura: Get on with the chapter already, Ahou!!

Chapter 2: A Newscast and Special Card Readings!!!

Bakura pulled the brush through the bird's nest Ryou's hair had become from the braid. Ryou couldn't do it himself because he wasn't masochistic.

"OW!! Why did I agree to that again?"

"Because you didn't expect her to do that to you! Now sit still!!" the yami ordered. Ryou sat as still as he could, wincing as the brush threatened to take his hair out.

He'd just barely made it home before he had pulled the hairties out and started pulling the braids apart. Bakura had materialized to help him, since they did share a body

Now they had to deal with the aftermath of the 'condition'.

"At least we have something to read about ghosts..." Ryou muttered. Bakura snorted. Ryou picked up the remote and turned on the TV to the news channel. The one that aired in English sometimes, like when they get a tape from America or England that is worth the trouble of airing, but not translating.

"_As you can see, the situation in Amity Park, Oregon has risen to a new height,"_ the news lady said. Ryou and Bakura looked up, messy hair forgotten. This news cast was in English, but both understood it, since Ryou lived in England before coming here.

"That's where Danny lives..." Ryou whispered under his breath.

"Shhh!"

"_The ghost attacks are more frequent—"_

"_Look! It's Danny Phantom!!" _Several cheers sounded as a white-haired boy literally flew in the sky toward a tall building. He wore a black full-body suit with white gloves, boots, belt, and a white collar.

"Danny Phantom, huh? He coulda picked a cooler name..." Bakura mumbled. Ryou looked towards his yami, but decided not to comment.

'Danny Phantom' noticed the crowd's cheers and stopped to wave down. The smile on his face showed just how relieved he was that they were cheering. The camera zoomed in on him just as a blue plum of smoke came out of his mouth. He turned around in time to summon a shield to absorb a blue light-thing. A ghost—Ryou guessed—wearing a suit of armor flew into view. Ryou studied the ghost, and was surprised to see the mouth move. Phantom's mouth moved as well, so they were talking. Phantom created a bright green light in his hands before shooting it at the other ghost, making it fall towards the ground. His legs melded together as the whitenette flew at a high speed that could rival Seto Kaiba's jet in the direction that the armor had fallen.

Ryou just sat there, frozen. He'd finally realized why he had been so engrossed by the newscast. Danny Phantom looked almost exactly like his friend did from the last picture he'd gotten!

His eyes turned to Bakura, who was smirking.

"At least you didn't need me to tell you who that was."

"But how—when did—ugh...my head hurts..." Ryou mumbled. Bakura chose that moment to pick the brush back up and pull it through the hikari's hair.

"OW!"

==--===--==--==---==--=--==--=--=-=-=-

A good forty minutes later, Ryou's hair was back to normal. Well, mostly normal. It was a little straighter than before, thanks to Bakura's hairstyling skills. Ryou was just glad he still had his hair. Ryou finished reading the letter and understood for the most part about Danny's condition.

While Ryou wrote the response, Bakura threw in some theories he had about what happened and told Ryou to include their e-mail address so they wouldn't have to wait for the letters to come.

Ryou included some questions of his own before going to the post office to mail it off. Good thing it was nearby and Ryou could take the back streets...

==--==--=-=-=-==--=-=---===--=-=-====-

It was a few days before Ryou's hair was back to its normal spiky nature. That had taken the _whole _weekend they were out of school! He took the book he'd bartered from Serenity to school so he could read it during Study Hall. That was where Yugi found him next, though it wasn't Ryou in control at the time. What a Monday...

Bakura had his feet up on the desk with the book in his lap. Yugi knew who it was before Yami had even tried to have them switch places. He decided against it, so Yami was mad that Yugi refused to let him handle it.

He walked over to Bakura. The whitenette looked up from the book with a confused glance. He was certain that it would have been the Pharaoh who would walk over, so when the pipsqueak came up to him, he could honestly say he was surprised. But was he honest? Not really.

"Bakura-san, get your feet off the table," the teacher called. Bakura straightened as the teacher walked past. He went with the friendly-thing with Yugi.

"Hello Yugi. Is there something you need?" He asked, mimicking Ryou's voice to the letter. He'd even made his eyes mostly brown. Enough that he could fool anyone who looked unless they were looking for the red. Then they'd find it. But he can't have the teacher getting suspicious of who he was, after all. Not that she'd notice. Mortal teachers don't believe in magic of any kind. Much less that two of their students could count as four people. Yugi stood next to the table.

"Cut the lies, Tomb Robber," he whispered harshly. Bakura's eyebrows raised in minute respect. _Some_one's been around their yami too long.

"I can't quite let some people know I'm not Ryou, now can I? Don't want him committed into a mental hospital yet. I've heard that it's hard to break out of those," Bakura muttered under his breath. He smirked for the last part. Yugi blinked.

"Where _is_ Ryou? Is he hurt?"

"No. He's tired, so _I_ have to endure this torture," the spirit growled, more at himself than Yugi.

"What happened?" Bakura saw that the teacher was away from them and propped his feet back up.

"Geez, you're full of questions today. If you must know, he stayed up late last night reading this book. I can see why though..." Bakura flipped the page.

"What's it about?" Yugi ventured. The yami didn't even think about the answer.

"Ghosts." Yugi stared at the spirit. Surely he hadn't heard...

"Ghosts? But you're a—"

"Different type entirely, Yugi. These ghosts don't need hosts. They're not stuck here because of some baka shoving them into magical items. They're... almost _free_," he muttered. Ghosts weren't entirely free because their whole reason for being is one little thing. Something that they hadn't done in their life, or something that they loved to do when they could.

"You...you want to be free of Ryou?" Yugi looked scared. What would Bakura do to be free?

Bakura blinked. Then he laughed. He hasn't realized the way he'd said it could be interpreted like that.

"Well, I wouldn't have someone nagging in the back of my head when I do something wrong..." Then the smile faded. The reason he wouldn't want anyone to leave reentered the forefront of his mind. "But... I've gotten used to it. Doesn't bother me what he says. He can't stop me."

/'Kura?/ a sleepy voice mumbled from his soulroom.

//Go back to sleep. You're still tired and I wanna finish this book// another yawn escaped Ryou's mental mouth.

/Okay. Don't get me into trouble, please/ the link closed down as Ryou fell back asleep. Yugi looked at the dark spirit.

"He can't?"

"Of course not! I'm stronger and faster than him. Not to mention I can keep him out of whatever it is I plan to do," Bakura muttered. He turned back to his book and waited for Shrimp to say something more. Yugi shifted his weight.

"Yami wants to talk to you," he said softly. Bakura looked back up.

"If you switch now, you'll attract too much attention," he said as he pulled out a card that wasn't part of his deck to serve as a bookmark. He pulled out the rest of his deck and started to shuffle it. He straightened back up.

"Oh yeah, right. Would've been a bad idea anyway, I guess..." Yugi mumbled.

Bakura drew a card and placed it on the table. He drew another one and placed it next to it. He drew a few more until he had five cards on the table, four surrounding one in the middle. They were all facedown.

"What are you doing?" Yugi asked as he sat down across the table from the dark sprit. Bakura flipped the card on the far right over.

"Your deck reveals a lot about who you are, Yugi. They can almost act as a kind of...Tarot deck I suppose," he said as he examined the card. Dark Necrofear stared up at him. "This one is the card of your past. Mine is Dark Necrofear because of its connection to death." He flipped the card in the middle. "Present," Souls of the Forgotten lay upside-down. "Future," Change of Heart looked innocently onward at the two boys. Bakura frowned. He moved his hand toward the bottom card to finish the reading, but a jolt went through his arm when he did. He didn't mention it, though.

"What you desire," he continued, not missing a beat and letting Yugi know that something was amiss. He flipped the card Black Pendant over. "And what you will face to acquire that desire," he flipped the last card over. Dark Sanctuary lay there, filling Bakura with its mystery, as it was a place that hid everything, as was its nature. What it meant was that something was going to happen; the cards just didn't know what yet. For once, Ryou's darkness didn't know what it all meant.

"This is sooo cool," Yugi muttered. "Can you read my cards?"

"I doubt the Pharaoh would like that very much," Bakura said. Yugi looked thoughtful.

"He doesn't... but I want to know!" Yugi gave his best pout-y face as Bakura started to pick up the cards. Bakura thought hard. Give the shrimp a reading and possibly get sent to the Shadow Realm, or leave it alone and let him wonder what the future might hold... Decisions, decisions...

"Alright," Bakura put his cards away as Yugi pulled his out. Bakura took them and shuffled them in front of the boy to show that he wasn't doing anything to harm the deck. He drew the cards and placed them on the desk. Yugi watched closely as Dark Bakura flipped the cards over, one by one. The past was Kuriboh.

"That means that there wasn't anything but innocence. There still appears to be all the innocence you used to have, it's just telling you that is where you used to stand," Bakura explained. He leaned closer. "Remember, this reading may be for both you and your yami." The present was the Dark Magician.

"Power is what you have now, the power to control what may happen to you, that type of thing." Yugi nodded, understanding. He did have a lot of power. Most of it was Yami's, though. The future was Swords of Revealing Light. Bakura frowned at it a moment.

"This must mean that something will happen that'll leave you unable to act for a while, I guess."

"You guess?" Bakura shrugged.

"No one else has ever gotten this before, Yugi. I can only think about what might happen," He said as he flipped the next card, the desire card. It was Black Luster Ritual. It took Bakura a moment to understand what it was trying to say. But only a moment. Not as long as it took him to figure out the future card.

"You want knowledge, correct?" on Yugi's nod, he continued. "Let's see what you'll be up against..." the Magician of Chaos almost glittered dangerously.

"Looks like you'll face something that'll decide the outcome of your whole life, if I'm reading this right," Bakura said as he examined the reading again. Yugi looked at Bakura as the spirit gathered the hikari's cards. He noticed.

"What?" Bakura couldn't take the look Yugi had anymore.

"Yami said that I shouldn't really listen to what you said," Yugi mumbled as Bakura gave him his deck back.

"Why? Didn't he like how the future's gonna turn out?" A smirk appeared on Bakura's face as he said this.

"I think he thinks that you made it up. Sorry," he said as Bakura's face softened. Then the hikari perked up. "Maybe I could get Joey to use his deck like this! Would you tell his fortune?" Bakura laughed. Yugi trusted too easily. He felt Ryou rouse in his soulroom.

//Ryou, you awake?// he called softly into the room.

/Kinda... did you get me into trouble?/

//Not this time. Yugi's here//

/Want me to take over?/

//Not if you're still asleep//

/I'm not. I can handle it/

//Okay//

"Not this time, Yugi. Ryou's awake now and wants to spend what's left of his class time awake," Bakura said. Yugi nodded, understanding as he put his deck away. He looked a little sad that Bakura couldn't use Joey's deck like that, but he was going to get to talk to Ryou!

Bakura was glad that he had the Ring under his shirt and jacket. The light would have been far too noticeable otherwise.

Brown eyes opened as Ryou slumped somewhat over his desk.

"Still asleep?" Ryou looked up at Yugi and shook his head.

"No, just wish I had slept last night instead of reading. What did Bakura do?" he heard the yami in question growl softly in his soulroom.

//Why does everyone ask that!?//

/Just to get a conversation going, trust me/

//Unfortunately, I have no choice//

"He told me my future with my deck! It was so cool, but kinda creepy with what he told me. His reading of himself surprised him too, though," Yugi said with out breathing. He took a huge breath when he finished, seeing the shocked worry on Ryou's face.

"What cards did he have?"

"Er... I forgot the first two, but Change of Heart was in his future!" The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day.

"Wow. I slept right through school, and I didn't get in trouble for it!" Ryou laughed softly as he stood up and made sure he had everything.

"Oh, yeah! Yami sent you something, but he wouldn't tell me what it was."

"I'll check on it. I was planning on doing that anyway," he answered as they walked out of the school.

/I hope he didn't get a picture of...what Serenity did/

//He's supposed to be above that, ahou//

"Are you expecting something?"

"Yes, but," He leaned closer with one finger to his lips, "It's a secret!"

Yugi pouted at Ryou, but accepted the answer without question. They parted at Yugi's house before Ryou walked the rest of the way home.

A/N Bakura was nice to little Yugi and Yami didn't get any spotlight. Apocalypse anyone?

Who can guess what's gonna happen to Yugi that'll make Bakura's prediction true?

I need a job... I wanna go to France next year...

Bakura: Stop whining!!!

Ryou: 'Kura...

Bakura: Not you too! Ugh!! I need a vacation...

But Bakura! We need you to help me write! Maybe if I get enough reviews I'll be able to get a job!

The next chapter will be...something like...

Bakura: 'Internet Safety for Mortal Fools'?

No... That's not it... And you're stealing from the 'For Dummies' book line!

Bakura: I'm a thief...Remember?

Oh, right. I forgot.

Review, please!!! Ryou gets a hug for every review I get. HUG RYOU!!!!


	3. Enter Fenton

I'd like to take this time to thank all those who reviewed. *hugs Ryou*

Ryou thanks you too. He likes hugs :)

Bakura: Can we get on with this? It's torture already…

Ryou: Can I have another hug please?

Bakura: Suck up.

Of course, Ryou!

Ghosts of the Shadow Realm Chapter 3: Enter Fenton

The mail man put the letters he had been charged with into the mail slot of the Fenton household before he looked up at a window that had caught his eye. He'd just seen something—or someone—move the curtains. He knew who it was, of course. That window belonged to Danny Fenton, the weirdest Fenton in the house. And the boy had received a letter from Japan of all places!

"I don't get paid enough for this job," the mail man muttered. He walked back up the path before going to the next house on the street.

Inside the large brick building, a woman with shoulder-length red hair picks up the mail and shuffles through. When she came across the letter addressed to her son, a warm smile appears on her face. She left everything but the letter on the kitchen table before walking up to Danny's room.

Said raven-haired boy was busy shuffling his Duel Monsters cards. The one thing that really sucked about Amity Park—no, America in general—was that they didn't have Duel Monsters. He'd complained to his friend at least twice before about the lack thereof. Maddie walked in, startling Danny somewhat and making him almost drop his cards. Almost. A Duelist never drops his cards no matter what. Even if said Duelist hasn't had a proper duel in a couple years.

"Danny, honey, Ryou wrote you back," she said, smiling. Danny put his deck away into the 'secret' belt that he hid under his t-shirt. Lancer'd have a cow if he knew that Danny was bringing playing cards to school on a regular basis… Talk about detentions for life…

He took the envelope and inspected it. Most of the kanji the return address was written in was definitely Ryou's. The messier kanji Danny guessed was the spirit of the Millennium Ring. Danny opened it and a couple of photos fell out. One was of a boy with wide bloody-brown eyes, long white hair and a cool-looking black cloak, which somehow made the kind-hearted boy intimidating. There was a mirror behind him, revealing just how long his hair was. The Millennium Ring shone nearly white in the sunlight that intruded the room.

"He's in desperate need of a haircut," Maddie mumbled as Danny laid the photo on the table before picking up the other.

"He probably likes it like that, mom. Besides… it's not like he has a mom to cut it for him," Danny answered as he looked at the photo. The subject of Ryou's mother still unnerved Danny for some reason. Maddie could never figure that part of her son out.

It was of five people. A small boy with outrageously spiky hair that was tri-colored, a girl with shoulder- length brown hair, a boy with short brown hair, it was almost a buzz cut. There was another boy with long blonde hair, and Ryou, all wearing what Danny remembered Ryou telling him was the school uniform for Domino High School. Danny turned it over and the names of the kids were on the back. Yugi Moutou, Tѐa Gardener, Tristan Taylor, and Joey Wheeler. Ryou's new friends from school.

Danny smiled at how happy Ryou looked while he was surrounded by these people. It was about time something good happened to him. After transferring so much, and losing so many friends to their comas (which Danny was told was the spirit of the Millennium Ring's fault), Ryou had been really miserable. That made Danny wish they hadn't moved so that he could have been there, but they had had to leave, since his parents couldn't find any ghosts there.

A girl with waist-length red hair came into his room. She saw Maddie and cleared her throat when no one looked her way immediately. The mother-son pair turned around to look at the intruder. She smiled innocently.

"Danny, Sam's he—" her words were cut short when the said friend came in. Sam had a huge smile on her face, which was rare and usually meant she had something evil planned, and a brochure in her hand.

"We're going to the museum today!" Danny blinked as he tucked the letter into his belt in his side-deck side. Sam and Tucker never knew about it though. They'd probably think he got it from a ghost or something. They were kinda predictable…

"Why?"

"They have a new Egyptian exhibit—today only!" Sam was really happy. Wait a sec…

"Egyptian? Here? What are we doing here then!" Danny remembered where Ryou said his Ring was from. If he was going to understand Ryou's problems better, he would get answers there. That and…he liked learning about Egypt. His family (and Ryou's, apparently) was Egyptian, it's been proven through that new blood typing thing that the government ran through here (by fault of Vlad. Don't know why he wanted those records though) and now Danny was more than curious about Egyptian history. He quickly pulled his shoes on and when Sam was out of sight, gave his mom a hug and left.

Danny ran down the stairs, taking two at a time to meet the Goth at the front door. He skid to a stop as he fixed his messy hair and grabbed his coat.

-=-=--===---====----====----===----====----====---

It didn't take very long for them to get to the museum.

"Okay, as long as no one from school recognizes us," Danny whispered to his friends, "We'll be—"

"HEY!! FEN-TOAD!" an obnoxious voice called out. Danny stiffened.

"Speak of the devil," Sam muttered next to him as they turned around. A blond boy wearing a leather football jacket walked over and hit Danny hard enough to make him fall.

"Now, now, children. There's no need for violence," a soft voice said behind Danny. He looked up to see a woman with long black hair with gold intertwined in it, a white cut-up robe with a cape and a necklace with an eye on it. Her dark blue eyes stared straight at the popular trouble-making dunce. Dash started stuttering.

"T-This isn't over yet, Fen-tony!" he called back as he raced from the museum. Danny wasn't paying attention though as the woman held out her hand and helped the boy up.

As soon as their hands touched, the Millennium Necklace activated. When Danny stood up, he waved a hand in front of her face. A boy with white-blonde hair wearing a similar outfit walked in and poked the woman once before giving up.

"I apologize for my sister," he said as the woman suddenly blinked. He smiled. "I am Marik Ishtar. This is my sister Ishizu Ishtar."

Ishizu's eyes narrowed slightly at the ghost boy.

"Would you come with us for a moment?" she asked, gesturing to Danny. Marik gave her a 'what are you doing' look. She returned with an 'I know what I'm doing look'.

"I guess," Danny answered as Sam looked at him. Her eyes narrowed at the brother/sister pair as Danny started to walk with them. Sam reached out and grabbed Danny's arm.

"Danny! It could be a trap!" she hissed. Marik laughed.

"Of course it's a trap. That's why my mind-controlling item doesn't feel like destroying the world," he paused. "Again." He held a golden wand and was inspecting the top of it for scratches. The wings on the sides of the Egyptian eye made it look slightly malevolent. Behold, the Millennium Rod!

"Marik! Stop scaring peple. What would Odion say?" Ishizu scolded as Marik just barely missed being beheaded by her hand. The smile on Marik's face destroyed the 'evil plan' he'd just revealed.

Sam's whole argument collapsed as her face turned red. She started stuttering.

"Relax, Sam. I'll be right back. Wait here," Danny laughed as he unlatched Sam's hands from his arm. He walked to the Egyptian exhibit. Sam huffed, gave Ishizu a deathglare, and leaned against the wall to wait for Danny.

"Darn…boyfriend stealing…" Sam blinked. _Boyfriend?_ That can't be right…

===-----=====----===---===---==---==--==--=-=

Danny walked into a room with the Ishtars and stared at the walls in shock.

"How did all this get here?!" Marik laughed at the boy's plight.

"You'd be surprised what someone can do with the right resources," he closed one eye as he turned his head in Danny's direction. Ishizu walked ahead of them and stopped in front of a large stone tablet. Danny recognized the Millennium Ring among the items depicted. Ishizu's necklace and Marik's rod were there as well.

"Danny… how much do you know about Ancient Egypt?"

---====----====----====----===---===--===--==--=

A/N end chapter 3!

Okay, before I go any further, I have absolutely no idea how to spell Marik's brother's name. Can anyone tell me so I don't feel bad about misspelling it in the future?

Ryou: Don't look at me! I wasn't in this chapter! *Waves hands in the air in surrender*

Bakura: At least you were mentioned more times than one or two… grrr

Danny: When's the next chapter?! I wanna know what those two people know. *crosses arms*

Bakura: *punches Danny*

Danny: *falls to the ground, but does an awesome move to get back up and kick Bakura*

Hey, HEY!!! STOP FIGHTING!!!

Danny and Bakura: *stop fighting* What?

You're not allowed to fight! It's in the rules. You must Duel each other instead.

*crickets*

Ryou: Maybe now would be a good time to remind people to hug—I mean—review?

Yes! Now would be a good time!

Review people! Ryou still gets hugs!


	4. Millennium Information

Ghost of the Shadow Realm

Hello peoples!!! Here's chapter 4 for you! Thanks for the reviews!!

Bakura: You're not really happy, are you?

No, not really. I'm moving! It's not fair!

Ryou: It gonna be okay, you'll still have Internet.

Danny: And memories.

True.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the prophesy. Barely own that.

Chapter 4: Millennium Information

"Danny…How much do you know about Ancient Egypt?" Ishizu asked. Danny thought for a moment.

"I know that there was some sort of war between a Pharaoh and some dark force. My friend told me what he knew about it… which really wasn't much," he answered, smirking when he saw Ishizu's surprised face. Even Marik looked impressed.

Ishizu smiled.

"Yes, there was a war. Between the Pharaoh and the forces of Darkness, it is still to this day unknown how the Pharaoh won. But he did win. He saved the world from the Shadow Games," she smiled at her brother.

"And he rescued the world again this year when they threatened to come back—and it wasn't my fault that they did!" he said defensively to his sister. Danny wondered what Marik could have done to need to claim his innocence. Danny returned his gaze to the stone tablet behind the elder sibling. Then he realized something.

"Wait a second—if the Pharaoh lived 5000 years ago…how did he save the world this year?" Ishizu smiled at the boy. She walked over and placed her hands on his shoulders. She steered him to the tablet and pointed to the upside-down pyramid in the middle of the seven items.

"This… is the Millennium Puzzle. A boy named Yugi Motou solved the Puzzle and the Pharaoh resided within," she held up her hand when Danny opened his mouth again. "His soul is what resided within. When there is a need for him, he is able to appear and protect. Usually it is when Yugi duels that he is needed, and then he takes control of Yugi's body to help out," she elaborated. A thousand and one questions tumbled through Danny's mind, but the one that came out was—

"Is it like the Millennium Ring?" Marik stepped up at that question. His eyebrow was raised.

"How do you know about the Ring?" His posture was a lot straighter, and Danny didn't quite like the look he was receiving from the Ishtars. He'd merely asked a question!

"The friend that told me about the war has it. His name's Bakura Ryou. He's got a soul living in his Item, and the bad Bakura can possess Ryou's body whenever he wants," he explained quickly, hoping to not be brutally murdered by Marik's Item. The end of it looked pretty sharp. Marik's eyes narrowed.

"You know the Tomb Robber? I find that hard to believe." Danny swallowed as Marik came a little closer. Danny back up a step as Ishizu held out her arm to stop him.

"So you know of the Millennium Items?" Danny nodded.

"Not much, but enough to know what Ryou's going through," he muttered. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves. You'd think that with all the ghosts he fights, these people wouldn't be able to even make him think that they might've been a threat. There was something…_different_ about them. Their auras were different from other people's. More power, or maybe a different kind of power. Whatever it was, it unnerved him. "I didn't know that there were more of them, though." Marik's pose didn't relax. Ishizu breathed.

"Then we will explain them to you, since you already know about one," she answered softly. Her slightly accented voice reassured Danny a little. He relaxed as Ishizu turned back to the tablet.

"Five thousand years ago, when the Shadow Games were used to determine one's guilt or innocence, a young Pharaoh whose name has been lost to history ruled over his people. He had many loyal followers and he was a kind ruler, using his heart whenever he could. The people loved him, but Egypt was destroyed during his rule. To rescue his people, he sacrificed himself and his priests to the Gods to vanquish the darkness and give the Millennium Items their power. The Ring was stolen and the thief was imprisoned within." Danny blinked as he took it all in. Marik gained an evil smirk on his face.

"Did Bakura tell you what the Ring can do?" he whispered softly though intimidating at the same time for Danny. He shook his head. Ryou hadn't told him _how_ his other had put his friends into comas, just that he had. The smirk widened as Danny shot a glance at Ishizu who looked at him helplessly. "The Ring's power is to trap people's souls within dolls! If you met him, you would be turned into a doll! And your friend would be able to do nothing about it!" Marik's smirk was now a full-blown smile. Ishizu sighed.

"He's better than that, brother. His hikari would be able to convince him not to, and the spirit would probably listen—"

"If the boy could help him get the rest of the Items. Which I doubt you would be of much use," Marik interjected, sizing Danny up. Danny swallowed. A question that had been plaguing him popped out of his mouth.

"What happens when the Items are all together?"

"We don't know. We have several theories, but there is too much speculation to actually believe them to be true," the woman answered, a strange look in her eye. "My Millennium Necklace allows me to see into the future and the past. Your past is barred from me, but your future is not," at the mention of his past, Danny stiffened a little, and thanked whatever god there might be (Isis heard it!! :) ) that she couldn't see that he was part ghost. But the future part intrigued him. And she realized that she had said too much.

"You can see it?" Danny prompted, wanting her to continue. Ishizu looked at Marik for help. He shrugged.

"You already had the vision when you met him, so you might as well tell him," he said. That was all there was to it. _Tell him_. Ishizu focused her power to the Item around her neck. When she spoke her voice was monotone.

"In the near future, past and present will collide and chaos will enfold. While you will gain new friends, you will lose the trust of the old. Be wary of your choices, Danny, as they will determine the outcome of not only your life, but that of every life you come into contact with." Ishizu lowered her hands as Marik mock-clapped. Danny blinked. _Past _and_ present? What could that mean?_

While Danny's brain worked overtime, Marik cleared his throat. Danny looked his way.

"You have a lot of Shadow Magic within you," he said. His face was serious.

"Is that bad?"

"Depends. Do you know what you can do with it?" Danny shook his head and Marik scowled. He turned back to his sister with a "why hasn't no one told him?" look. He sighed as he received a "Don't ask me" look in return. He turned back to the raven haired boy. "Where is your family from?" That is usually a clue as to where someone could have inherited magic of any kind.

"Egypt, mostly on my mother's side," he answered. Marik took a better look in his eyes. Yes, there was the tell-tale lengthy lashes of an Egyptian growing to encircle the blue eyes. Yugi and Bakura were both part Egyptian, though there was very little actual Magic running in their veins, hence why they weren't discovered until they received their Items. Danny, on the other hand, had enough to truly be royalty. Enough, and much more. The boy was a well of Shadow Magic, and, if allowed to run free, would do more damage than Bakura had done. Marik was surprised they hadn't run across a whole town of people in comas. Blue eyes were special, though. Especially his.

Innocent, but powerful. Kind, but strong. Friendly, but always on the lookout for enemies.

Marik had half a mind to intrude on Danny's mind and discover what made him so. He almost did, but the Pharaoh had asked them, no, _ordered_ them not to use the Items unless they absolutely needed to, or they activated on their own. Ishizu's had acted on its own accord. Marik's would not. That was why they were allowed to keep their Items.

If the boy was a real threat, maybe Shadi would come and check him out. He'd come for people that hadn't had the Items before. He could understand if Shadi had been busy but, to allow such a boy to be left alone for so long meant that someone's been protecting him. Who would protect someone that could potentially destroy the world? One Shadow Game, and the unfortunate loser would be forever lost, and not even the Pharaoh himself would be able to bring him back. Marik suddenly realized that some of the Magic—only a little, though, and it had the same feeling as Danny's—came from something hidden under his shirt, where his belt would be. Marik didn't know what it was, since only Duel Monsters cards could absorb magical energies. America didn't have Duel Monsters. But…what if Danny had gone somewhere that did?

"Have you ever heard of Duel Monsters before, Danny?" Ishizu didn't have the sensitivity to Shadow Magic that Marik had. Danny's eyes widened a moment before he lifted the side of his shirt and revealed a belt that many Duelists wore. He looked on as Danny retrieved a deck of cards from the pouch on the side. The cards were in perfect condition.

"I lived in Japan for a while and got into it with Ryou. He was always better at than me, though," he answered as Marik thought.

"May I hold them?" Marik asked, holding out his hand.

"As long as you give them back, yeah. And promise not to tell anyone here," he said as he gently handed the Egyptian boy his deck. Marik looked through them and noted with respect that they were very well taken care of. But when Marik looked at Danny from the corner of his eye, the boy's power hadn't waned a bit.

The cards' magic was very strong, probably from being at the boy's side for so long. The power radiating from the card Neo the Magic Swordsman was the strongest. That came from being the favorite of the bunch. However, all the cards seem to have all had a bond with Danny that was the same level. Neo did not have all the attention as some Duelists gave their favorite cards. He looked through to see the numerical strength of the deck. It wasn't very strong, but they had a good chance of winning against someone who valued strength over ability. Where one card would fail, another would be there to pick up the pieces. The effects monsters were not common, and though their attack and defense points were close to zero, as long as Danny knew how to use them correctly he could possibly rival the Pharaoh in a regular Duel. The deck had its flaws, which could have been fixed if he'd still have been in Japan, but Marik doubted that Danny'd toss the cards he couldn't use to his advantage.

Okay, the next time he saw Seto Kaiba, he was going to ask him to extend the card game to America. Danny'd win whatever tournament he could get to unless the Pharaoh came along for the ride. Even with this deck, the boy'd win hands down.

Marik nodded and gave Danny back the deck. He watched as Danny slipped the cards back into their place before he placed a hand on the ghost kid's shoulder.

"Shadow Magic is only dangerous if you tap into it before you're ready to handle it. I don't think you're ready just yet, but be careful not to reach too far down for a burst of power, even if you need it. People can get hurt if you're not careful," Marik warned. He hadn't quite been ready to accept the magic he had. People had gotten hurt over a grudge set against the wrong person. But he'd been forgiven, so it was alright now. Not that he'd want to repeat the mistake again.

"How would I know when I was ready?" Danny asked, trying to understand. He'd never heard of Shadow Magic before. Maybe Bakura knew more about it. Then he remembered the letter. Geez, Danny needed to keep track of what he was doing…

Marik smiled, "You'll know." Marik turned back to his sister. "Ishizu, how long were you planning on keeping him? I think that girl might get mad if we keep him as a pet. And Odion might not like it too much, either," he prompted, trying to get the woman to spit out what she'd wanted to say. She realized the time then.

"Oh, yes." She cleared her throat. "I must ask you tell me if you'd be interested in meeting the Pharaoh and his friends. I'm sure that they'd have a few questions to ask you as well."

Danny blinked. And thought about it.

"They're not too bad, they just have a tendency to yammer on about how important friendship is. I think they're trying to brainwash everyone they meet," Marik muttered with a smirk. Danny bit back a laugh.

"How would I meet them?"

"I could take you to Domino City… but I think that bringing them here would be a bit better. They need to see what else is out there anyway. The Pharaoh is probably in need of a field trip," Ishizu answered.

"I'll have to ask my mom and my friends… But I think that may be a good idea. What're their names? Besides Yugi's." Then Danny remembered where he'd known that name from. Aside from being King of Games, which Danny knew from the internet when Sam and Tucker hadn't been looking, his name was on the photo Ryou'd sent! Maybe there was a connection…

"Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, and Tea Gardener," Marik said, ticking the names off his fingers. So they were the same… Ryou friends with the Pharaoh! "And you already know Bakura, so no point in adding him. I sometimes think he's not really their friend, or rather they're not his friends."

That caught Danny's attention.

"Why?"

"He's not always included when they do something they need their friends for. He gets left out a lot there." Marik shrugged the facts off. Sam peeked into the door as she had gotten suspicious again. There was something wrong about these people…

"And he still hangs out with them?" Maybe meeting them is a bad idea. They obviously don't practice what they preach.

"I'm sure Bakura will explain it to you better than we can, Danny," the woman answered softly. "Especially since you keep in contact with him." She pointed to the other side of his shirt, where the letter was. Danny's eyes widened. How did she know about that!? His eyes narrowed slightly. He took a deep breath. Now wasn't a good time to question them too much. Sam just watched from the doorway, probably thinking that she was well hidden. Marik looked up. And smiled.

"Now, if your girlfriend is done hiding," Marik smirked, drawing Danny's attention, "I think we've covered anything." He handed Danny a piece of paper with Japanese written on it. "If you have any questions on Ancient Egypt, just send us an e-mail. Computers are really handy," Marik said, closing one eye while tilting his head toward the door. Danny heard a little 'eep' come from the doorway and gave a little laugh. He took the paper and walked toward the door, waving bye to the Egyptians.

Once the raven-haired boy had disappeared from sight, Marik turned to his sister.

"That's not what you wanted to ask him." Ishizu turned to the stone tablet. She closed her eyes.

"I don't know how to properly phrase the question. His place among the path is uncertain, and I don't want to frighten him with it. He already knows that he's different, brother. I can't tell something I don't truly know." Marik nodded in agreement.

"It'll become clear soon enough, sister. But who could have been protecting him from us?" Ishizu didn't know.

"Whoever it is, they have their reasons. Just as we have ours. WE must not interfere with fate. We'll just have to watch and see what happens now." She walked out of the room, leaving Marik to ponder the resent turn of events. He lifted the Millennium Rod. By all rights, it should have found its way to Kaiba. Unfortunately, it wound up in Marik's hands. Maybe things would have been worse with the CEO. Not that anyone would have the chance to know. Kaiba didn't believe in magic, so the Rod would never work for him like it did for Marik. He inspected the Rod a moment.

"Damn fate," he muttered, defeated. Things would become clearer with time. They'd come this far, so the only way to go was forward. He'd be sure to tell the Pharaoh about this though. Even if that is all he can do.

And he expected Ishizu to get him his ice cream this time like she had promised. He wasn't going to be jipped of his ice cream. He liked chocolate.

He hurried out the door to catch up with his sister.

=-=-=-=----====----====----===---====--

A/N Yay ice cream!!! Wow, that was actually kind of random…

Bakura: Yeah, it was.

Ryou: Did he get the ice cream?

I think so, but don't quote me. Ishizu might have forgotten.

Danny: (sarcastically) h no! don't forget!

Ryou: (bops Danny in the head) Be nice! (turns to you) review please!! (Baby voice) Can I gets more hugs?


	5. Beginning of the Prophesy and a Surprise

HELLO!!!!

Bakura: *plugs ears* Do you have to be so loud?

YEP!

Ryou: *also has ears plugged* I think she had too much sugar today.

Nope. Sugar doesn't make me hyper! Niether does caffiene now that i think about it...

Disclaimer: Neither Danny Phantom nor YuGiOh belong to me. Though I do own my own Doorway to the Dark… *Insert evil laugh here*

----======------=====----

Chapter 5: Beginning of the Prophesy and Something Special

Sam took a deep breath. Danny had been hiding something big from her. All she had to do is ask the question.

But she couldn't say anything. They had been stopped in front of her house for at least five minutes before she had noticed.

"Hey…Sam… Earth to Sam…" Danny was saying. He had noticed her blank look. "Houston, we have a problem," he quoted, waving his hand in front of her face.

"Cut it out. I just spaced out, that's all," she answered hastily. _No_, she corrected in her mind, _that's not all_. She waved bye to him and walked up the path to her house.

Danny sighed. He ran his hand through his hair before taking the letter out of his belt. Today was not a very good day for him, apparently. Maybe reading what Ryou wrote would help him out some. He read through it as he walked home. Most of it was about how he was doing, how good it was to hear from him again, and a few questions that Danny knew how to answer. He skimmed through it again and spied something in English.

"Ryou's e-mail!" he muttered out loud. Then he realized that he had said it instead of thought it. He looked around and started whistling and walking back to his house. Although no one was out there, the walls have ears…

"Beware!" a voice randomly shouted out.

…And ghosts. Danny hurried home since he didn't want to deal with the nuisance. He'd just escape again anyway. And he wasn't a threat.

He smiled when he realized what the date would be in Japan.

==---===---==----=====-----

Danny stretched, his stiff joints creaking. He had spent a good two hours reading the letter. He kicked away from the table he had reading at and rolled his chair to his computer and started typing his reply to the address he'd been given (using a certain greeting to make sure that Ryou would definitely read the message). Answering questions was alright when the person you're talking—or writing—to is interested in what they're asking for. He wondered idly what the time was in Japan…

===----====----====---===---===

It was, in fact, late morning in Japan when Danny had sent the e-mail.

Ryou was bored listening to the teacher talk about a lesson he had already studied. He watched the clock tick by. It was going too slow on purpose.

Five more minutes of this…

Ryou wondered if his yami had ever had to deal with this kind of thing.

//Not really// his yami answered sleepily. //There weren't any clocks in Ancient Egypt// The corner of Ryou's mouth twitched as he fought down a smile.

Three minutes…

"Bakura-kun, care to explain what's so funny?" the teacher asked as she stood right in front of him. Her face was a mask of make-up, and Bakura dared her to be mean to Ryou. He thought it was funny when her face cracked. But he will never admit that he liked something the Pharaoh had done.

Though he had to admit the he was very imaginative when it came to shadow games.

Two minutes…

Ryou gave a Bakura smirk, getting a raised eyebrow from a few students as well as the teacher. The mask cracked, proving that she didn't like that Ryou had a sense of humor.

Thirty seconds…

"Your make-up's messing up," he answered cheerily as the bell rang. Chouno-sensei raised her mirror up and almost screamed in horror. Ryou quickly picked up his books and left, catching up to Yugi without realizing it. At least until a small flash of light caught his attention.

"You shouldn't do that to people, Bakura," the spirit said. Yami no Yugi never called him by his first name, which made Ryou wonder sometimes who he actually wanted to talk to.

"I know, but that was the only thing I could honestly say to her," Ryou answered. Yami's face softened a bit. He nodded even though he knew Ryou didn't see it.

"Honesty may be the best answer, but don't you think being nice would be better?"

"Maybe, but Chouno-sensei wouldn't have wanted the nice answer," the whitenette replied softly. He did feel bad for saying the truth to the teacher, but he felt that she wouldn't have let him just leave like that if he hadn't.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. It is hard to understand what it is really she wishes to have at times," he admitted. Ryou thought for a moment. Maybe getting on the Pharaoh's good side wasn't as hard as he'd thought…

They walked on in silence towards the cafeteria until Yami ducked into the boy's bathroom to switch places with Yugi. Yami didn't like the food the school handed out. He preferred chocolate. And ice cream. And real fruit.

Now that he thought about it, he was a very spoiled Pharaoh…

Yugi came out of the bathroom a few minutes later to find Ryou waiting outside. Yugi smiled at the brown eyed hikari as the two walked to the lunch room.

===----===-----=====-----======---

Ryou yawned on his walk home at the end of the Japanese school day. Bakura's transparent form appeared next to him, walking on the air.

"Think Danny got the letter yet?" the yami asked, not looking at Ryou.

"I sure hope so," Ryou whispered softly. He tugged at his backpack straps nervously. He looked at Bakura. "Do you think that—"

"Hey, Bakura! Where ya headed?" a voice yelled out, making Ryou turn around to see Joey Wheeler waving his hand in the air. The other hand was holding his bookbag as he ran.

//That's strange, he's on his own today// Bakura noted, a mocking tone of worry in his voice. //Think the fanclub split?// Ryou tilted his head just enough to properly glare at his hitori no boku. Bakura raised his hands in surrender. //Kidding//

"Nowhere, really. Why?" Ryou answered the blond once he'd caught up to the whitenette. Joey grinned evilly.

"You gotta come with me today, 'Kura!" He said, hooking his free arm around Ryou and pulling him close. He dropped his bag on the sidewalk as he talked. "How's about we have a duel for fun and stuff? Yugue gave me some awesome cards to add to my deck and I wanna try it out!"

"You want to duel me? I haven't really looked at my deck lately and—"

"I'm sure Gramps'll help you out! You're our friend and friends get discounts!" Joey looked off to the side at the bushes and gave a secret sign that Ryou missed. Bakura didn't, though.

//What is he planning?// The evil spirit went over all the secret signs he knew and drew a blank. He growled softly at being thwarted by _Joey_ of all people.

/I'm sure it's nothing, Bakura. He seems to really want to duel, though…/ Ryou thought back as Joey picked his bag back up and started walking Ryou to his house.

Ryou was just glad Joey had moved out of his dad's house. Mr. Wheeler sounded really scary.

And this was coming from someone who had a homicidal spirit sharing his mind.

Joey continued to ramble on about dueling until they reached his house. Ryou couldn't get a word in at all, and Bakura had continued to walk beside them to make sure that Ryou wouldn't get hurt (don't tell anyone!) but when Joey walked into his home, he pulled Ryou in alongside him, successfully dragging the hikari into his house.

Bakura was left gaping outside. He pulled himself together and phased through the door (he was still a spirit, so he could do that) to see what was going on.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BAKURA!" five voices sang out. Ryou looked really surprised.

"Oh, my. I didn't think you knew when it was!" he muttered. Bakura realized then that he didn't know his host's birthday. He'd never cared.

And for some reason, he felt bad about it.

/Don't worry, mou hitori no boku, I don't tell anyone when my birthday is. I really didn't know that _they_ knew it/ Ryou sent to him, trying to get the evil yami to not feel bad.

//I wonder who told them// Bakura grumbled in reply. It wasn't a real question, but Bakura was slightly upset. Yugi looked towards Bakura and the smile that he was wearing faltered some. //Dang, the brat sees me//

Yugi walked over to Ryou to give him two presents.

"This one's from Grandpa, he wanted to come, but the store's busy today," the spiky haired boy said, offering them to the other hikari. Tea then went and pushed Ryou into a chair at the table before Tristan and Joey pushed a really big box to him.

"Geez Tea, what'd you get him? The store?" Tristan muttered as they managed to somehow get the monster box to the whitenette.

"Hush up, I got him something he needs," Tea barked back, slightly miffed. She turned to Ryou with a smile. "Open mine first, Bakura!" Ryou put Yugi's presents on the table by the cake and stared at the big box a moment.

//Bi-polar much?//

/She's just being nice/ Ryou looked down at the present.

"You really didn't need to get me anything, Tea," he muttered softly, half hoping she wouldn't hear him. Bakura continued to watch from the door. Yugi kept shooting worried glances at him, but didn't tell anyone. Bakura could only guess that he didn't want to ruin the party. He hoped the discomfort he was feeling didn't show.

"Nonsense! Trust me, Bakura, you _really_ need this!" she squealed at the albino boy. Ryou gulped and lifted the lid off the box. Inside was—

Clothes.

Really, really _nice_ clothes.

There were bright clothes that Ryou preferred, as well as the more Goth colors that he knew Bakura would like.

"Thank you, Tea, really," Ryou said, smiling. Tea smiled a little, waving her hand dismissively.

"No thank you's needed," she said. "I'm always ready to help someone with fashion issues!" The boys—Bakura included—sweatdropped. Tea noticed (everyone except Bakura). "What?"

"Nothing, Tea," they chorused.

//Nothing, nothing// Bakura muttered. Yugi shot another glance at Bakura, and this time Joey noticed.

"What is it, Yugue?" he mumbled. Ryou could just barely hear him.

"Nothing, Joey. Just thought I saw something. Trick of the light, I guess." The hikari shrugged as Tristan gave Ryou another present. He hadn't even had the time to open the ones Yugi had given him. Tristan's present was a brand new black leather trenchcoat.

/Does my fashion sense need _this_ much help?/ Ryou thought. He heard Bakura cough and nearly choke on a laugh behind him. /That answers my question…/

//Don't ask, don't tell// Bakura quoted happily. Joey reached under his couch and pulled out a skateboard. Ryou stared at it a moment as the blonde boy handed the Board of Doom to him.

"Uhhhhh… Joey, I don't know how to ride," Ryou said blankly. Joey's smirk widened.

"Don' worry, I'll teach ya!" At Tea's glare, he said, "What? It was a two-for-one special!" Ryou carefully put the skateboard down beside him.

"_Arigato_, Joey, this is a very nice present." Joey rubbed his finger under his nose.

"Aww, it was nothin'," he said, smiling. Yugi walked up and gave the biggest smile Ryou'd ever seen.

"Open mine now, Ryou!" Ryou picked up a long box—one that Yugi had given him with his grandfather's present. Ryou opened the package and lifted a belt with a deck holder on the side. Yugi's had iron studs on them. This belt had Egyptian hieroglyphics expertly carved on the leather. Bakura saw that Tea had another present, because she had ducked into another room for a moment and was back. Ryou hadn't seen and was picking up Yugi's other present. Tea waited until Ryou had opened it before she moved closer. Tristan and Joey were completely oblivious to their female friend and Bakura turned his senses on full blast.

What if it was poison? Or a weapon that didn't like his host? If it was anything that harmed Ryou in any way…

Yugi's other present had been a bunch—that's more that Bakura could count, so more than twenty—packages of Duel Monsters cards, about ten to a pack. Ryou set them to the side and thanked Yugi before asking him to send his thanks to the shorter's grandfather. Suddenly, Tea pushed the new present into Ryou's hands before Bakura could tell his hikari about it.

Because of the lack of warning, Ryou was very hesitant to open the gift.

//I don't _think_ there's anything wrong with it… do you want me to open it?//

/No… I think I'll be fine. Thank you, though/ Ryou gently pulled the string that held the wrapping tissue together.

It was just a cell phone. A brand-new-never-taken-out-of-the-package cell phone. Bakura breathed a sigh in relief, but quickly regained his composure, in case Yugi noticed him again.

"This is the newest model they have out. It has a really good plan, and free lng-distance calling, even though you might never use it…" she said, suddenly remembering that Ryou didn't have that many friends. Bakura's ears perked at 'long-distance'. Then her smile came back. "But the point is that you get left out so often, that I thought that maybe if we could call you, you'd get to hang out with us more!"

Ryou stared at it a moment. Then a small smile appeared on his face. He didn't want to seem like he was over-reacting, since he wanted to hug Tea, so he just said, "Thank you, Tea."

//How long do you think it will take to get Danny's number?// Bakura asked once Joey and Tristan had started handing out pieces of cake—the largest slice was given to Ryou.

/Not long after he's gotten the letter and e-mailed us. Do you want ice cream with your share?/ Bakura laughed at that.

//Why? It's not my birthday// Ryou smiled a little. Joey handed him two big buckets of ice cream before fighting with Tristan over their favorite flavors. Tea shook her head as Yugi just shrugged. Nothing could stop those two when they had something to fight over.

By the time the party had ended, Ryou was left with his gifts (he was wearing the blet and coat) a couple large pieces of cake and a very large tub of ice cream. Bakura had retreated back into the Ring before Joey and Tristan had stopped fighting, so Ryou was naturally worried about his other. Every time he tried to contact Bakura, he was met with a strong mental wall. Was he that sore over Ryou keeping his birthday from him?

Well, while Bakura wasn't paying attention to him, Ryou might as well do something he wouldn't expect…

Ryou ran to his house, put the food and gifts away with an adrenaline-induced speed, grabbed a thick wad of yen that Bakura had collected for him and ran to the mall.

===-----=====------====-----=====-----==

Ryou had wrapped the presents expertly and had even gotten a small cake baked and decorated before Bakura lowered the mental wall. Ryou didn't know when Bakura's birthday really was, but he doubted that the spirit knew what day of the week it was back then. Days weren't exactly given names back then from what Ryou knew. Bakura materialized and Ryou quickly his what he was doing.

He needn't have bothered though. Bakura wasn't looking at him. IN fact, the tomb robber was yawning a little. Blood red eyes glanced at the clock.

"Shouldn't you be asleep by now?" he mumbled. Ryou smiled.

"Maybe." Bakura turned around at his hikari's uncharacteristic answer. He was surprised by the gifts Ryou was holding and the nicely sized cake with a toy pyramid on it. "Surprise! Today's your new birthday!"

Bakura couldn't help it.

He smiled.

=====--------------================-------------------==================----------------------========

End of another chapter…

Ryou: So Kura's got a birthday now?

Bakura: Don't try to count candles, Ryou. I wouldn't be surprised if Kaiba couldn't but that many candles. How many would that be anyway?

No clue. Next chapter will be when the presents are opened! If anyone wants to give Bakura a present, tell me what!

Ryou: I think I got him the best present, though…

Oh, Ryou! Don't cry! I'm sure it is! After all, no one knows Bakura like you do!

Review please!!!! Ryou still gets hugs!!!!


	6. The Presents and the EMail

This story is fun to write. There's too much that goes on for me to stop!

Bakura: That's good to hear, right Ryou?

Ryou: Yup! Oh, yeah, yami this came for you.

Bakura: What is i—oh Gods! That MKL person came back! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Ryou: That means he likes it.

Bakura: *still screaming*

I guess that means he likes it a lot... I hope.

Bakura: I will get you for this...

Ryou: *eep* *runs away*

Errrr.... I don't own anything, but Bakura owns his presents!

Chapter 6: The Presents and the E-Mail

Ryou handed his yami a nicely wrapped, long box that Bakura was a little hesitant in opening. The only reason Bakura hadn't gone back into the Ring earlier during the party was to make sure it wasn't some elaborate plan to get rid of his hikari.

Bakura finally lifted his hand and pulled the top off the box. The light that was reflected off the metal nearly blinded him, but he saw what it was.

The most awesome knife he had ever seen.

Inside the box, the blade was unsheathed and the cover was lying next to it. The blade had a snake-like dragon carved into the metal and the sheath had an intricate design etched on it. Bakura lifted the knife out and inspected it for flaws.

There weren't any.

"Wow…"

"I figured you'd like it. I made sure that it was sharp, too," Ryou said, still smiling. Bakura rubbed his finger on the blade, smirking happily when he almost cut it. Bakura opened the rest of the presents as the clock read 11:00 pm.

===-----=====-----====-----====--

Bakura and Ryou were passed out against each other when Yugi came to knock on the door. Ryou woke up to it as Bakura just moved and curled up away from the offensive banging. Ryou looked up at the time.

"HOLY RA! Bakura, it's six! Wake up!" But Bakura didn't feel like waking up. He muttered something that included a few curses before falling back asleep. Ryou jumped up and answered the door, making sure Bakura was out of sight. Yugi must've noticed that Ryou'd slept in. He grinned at Ryou's messy hair, since it needed a good brushing.

"What?" he asked, seeing the smile. Yugi _never_ smiled like that.

"Did you decide to have your own birthday party all night?" he smirked slightly, teasing the whitenette. "Aw, well, see you at school, Ryou." He waved 'bye' and left, but he was wondering why Ryou would stay up all night. He'd finished that book a few days ago… Yugi shrugged it off to the sugar leaving him too hyper to let him sleep and walked to school.

Ryou looked at his yami before running to his room to get showered, changed, and his hair fixed. In that order. He came back while brushing his hair and saw that Bakura was still sleeping. Ryou would have just left him slumped against the wall but he didn't know how far he could get from him while _he_ was wearing the Ring, so he thought about ways of waking the spirit up.

Kicking him awake would probably result in a totally one-sided Shadow Game…

Shaking him wouldn't do much, but it was better than the Shadow Realm. He did his best to shake the other boy, and was rewarded with a grumpy Bakura.

"It's time for school, and I don't want to just leave you here." Bakura growled a bit, but disappeared into the Ring. Ryou put on his jacket over the Item to hide it from the world and grabbed his bag before running out the door to get to school on time.

====-----========-------------==========

"So…. Bakura. I heard you were up all night," Joey prodded in the hall as they went to their first classes. Ryou wasn't the type to stay up late. He was the 'I'm a good boy' type. "Did you have a _girl_ over?" this was a whisper, and it made Ryou blush heatedly.

"What? No!" he waved his hands in denial as Tea bopped the blond in the head.

"What? I wanted to know."

"Not your business, Joey! He can do what he wants on his birthday!" Tea nearly screamed it as Ryou sweatdropped and Bakura stared at her from his soulroom.

//Wow. Remind me to wear earplugs next time I make her mad//

/Only if you help me avoid her when she is mad/

//Agreed. Next time she's on her uh, monthly problems, I'll let you know// Ryou had to turn around and go to his homeroom to hide the flush that Bakura had produced. Said spirit yawned. //How long did we stay up, anyway?//

/I think it was midnight when you'd finished playing with your knife and ate some cake. After that is a blur/

//I wasn't _playing_ with the knife, I was testing it!// the tomb robber fumed from his soul room. Ryou sat in his seat and laid his head on the desk until the teacher came in.

/This is going to suck/ Ryou thought as the teacher started snapping at all the students who hadn't done a project that wasn't due until next week.

//You said it, hikari//

----------===========----------==========------

Ryou stretched as he walked to the last class he had. It was study hall, and he had it with Yugi. Not that that was bad. He hoped Joey wasn't skipping his class to join them, though.

He walked in and took his seat, wishing that he still had some candy to eat to keep him up. Bakura was still tired, and therefore muttering evil plans that Ryou knew he wouldn't remember when he was fully awake.

/Go back to sleep/ Ryou ordered half-heartedly. He kinda liked Bakura's company, but he didn't want Bakura to stay up too long. If you think he's cranky now, just know that he's extremely homicidal when he stays up more than ten or twelve hours at a time.

Bakura just growled softly. There was another death threat at some poor nameless person, and Ryou just sighed.

He put his head on the table again and drifted off…

Until a heavy book was slammed a quarter of an inch away from it, pulling his hair.

Bakura looked up, angry at the offence. He growled, but the teacher wasn't fazed.

"Stay awake, Bakura-kun!" she said cheerfully. The spirit of the Millennium Ring stared at her. No one had ever stood up to his evil growl before! Especially _cheerfully_…

//_She _has to be on her monthly problems…// he thought, but he was answered by the tell-tale squeak of Ryou's soulroom bed as the boy rolled over in his sleep. Bakura blew air out of his lungs and lifted his bangs up with his breath. Yugi looked at him wearily. Bakura looked over and mouthed 'What'. Yugi leaned over his desk and for a moment Bakura thought that he was going to be left alone.

Then a certain Pharaoh slid into the seat next to him. Bakura facepalmed.

"So, ah, what's up?" Yami asked, obviously trying to sound like a regular kid. Bakura turned to stare at him.

"Are you alright?" the white-haired spirit muttered. He flashed his eyes to the teacher for a moment.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be alright?"

"Nevermind… oh, and to answer the first question… I believe the roof is 'what's up'," the tomb robber said, smirking. Yami frowned.

"That's not what I meant, Bakura." Bakura's smirk widened a little more. He yawned a little.

"I know," he answered, resting his head in his arms. Yami cocked his head slightly.

"Are _you_ alright?" Bakura turned his head to look at the other spirit.

"And you care because why?" Yami didn't blink.

"For your host's sake. If there was something wrong with you—besides the obvious—then something may be wrong with him," he answered easily. Bakura growled softly. Why did he have to always say that he did something? It's not his fault if his light gets a fever, or a cold, or anything.

//What did he mean by 'the obvious'? Oh well, I'll just ignore it for now//

"I'm fine, he's asleep. Happy?" the look he was receiving said that he wasn't, but the Pharaoh nodded.

"I still don't trust you, though," he answered.

"Good policy. I don't trust you either, Pharaoh." Bakura buried his head in the safety of his arms as Yami sighed. Bakura looked back up, annoyed. "Now what?"

"Nothing. Just Yugi saying that I _should_ trust you, but he's still young. I don't think he really understands," Yami said, waving his hand dismissively. The tomb robber thought for a moment.

"Maybe the light understands more than the dark believes," he said, sounding a little wiser than he usually does. Yami opened his mouth to object, but Bakura raised his hand just enough to stop him. "No, listen. You are too protective of your brat. What would happen if you couldn't get to him to help? He wouldn't know what to do, right?" Yami didn't even try to answer that. It was true. How many times had Yugi been in trouble and been completely helpless? "You see? I know some things, and so does Yugi. I could help him, but he wouldn't take it because he wouldn't want to do something that you would get mad over. Because you refuse to trust some of the people who could help you in protecting him—and face it, your fanclub isn't going to be there when it counts—Yugi could get seriously injured—or worse—when with just a little training, he would get by with maybe a few scratches."

Yami sighed. The thief was right.

"And what would you propose?" Bakura thought for a moment. Ryou wasn't up to help him with this thinking process, and he couldn't imagine the pipsqueak with any weapons, but maybe…

"Survival camp."

Yami blinked.

"Come again?"

"It's something that'll teach him how to be resourceful and live on his own in an unfamiliar environment. I thought about signing Ryou up, but then I'd have been stuck in the Ring for a week."

"So Yugi wouldn't have the Puzzle? What if something happens to him?" Yami started to panic, though he didn't let it show. Unfortunately for him, Bakura was good at seeing hidden things. Emotions included.

"That's the point. Once Yugi knows how to fend for himself, you will have less to worry about. A week isn't that long, and if you don't want him to be alone, then Ryou might sign up too. I'll ask him when he wakes up, if you want Yugi to be stronger, that is," Bakura said, looking at him from the comfort of his arms. Yami was thinking, hopefully about it.

"They'd be together, right? And we'd be trapped in our Items?"

"Both of us, yeah. It'll help them both, and we both know that we won't be with them forever. The Ring is unpredictable, so I don't know if it'll stick with Ryou for any period of time. Don't you want to know that Yugi'll be fine without you?" Yami sighed. He hadn't wanted to think about that. Once all the Items were together, who knows what would happen. What if he was separated from his light? Maybe this camp was a good idea…

"Alright. I'll see if Yugi's up to the task, but he'll only go if your host is going. Though the Ring had better not be in his possession," the Pharaoh warned. Bakura nodded. Then something hit him.

"Wait, you'll "see if he's up to the task"? Wasn't he talking to you while I was telling you about it?"

Crimson eyes darted to the side as the owner muttered something under his breath.

"What was that, Pharaoh? Did you say that you blocked him?" Bakura smirked as he put his hand to his ear and leaned toward the other. Yami muttered something else and Bakura's grin widened. "So you did! What did you think I would say? Or is it that you _do_ trust me, you just don't want your brat to know about it?"

"I plead the Fifth," Yami muttered.

"Too bad this isn't America. You should have to answer, but I think that it was that you trust me. Why keep it a secret? He'll find out about it anyway," the white-haired spirit teased. Yami pouted and looked away. Bakura wanted to laugh, but he didn't. His smile, however, could not be contained.

//Might as well let the man keep some of his dignity//

"Alright, Pharaoh, you don't have to answer. Hey look, the bell," he said as the bell rang. Yami picked up Yugi's backpack while Bakura shoved Ryou's books in his. They stood up as Bakura yawned again.

"What did you two do last night?" Yami asked as they left the room.

"Ryou surprised me, and we just stayed up too late," Bakura answered.

"May I inquire as to what he surprised you with?"

"Birthday party. He threw me one," he said. Then he swore at himself. Dangit, he was too tired to be talking!

"But it was his birthday. Why would he give you one?" Yami tilted his head toward the thief as the whitenette yawned.

"Errr… no clue. I guess he didn't want to be the only one to have a party. He's like that," Bakura said as he controlled his mouth. He talked too much when he was tired. Forget truth serum, just get the guy tired and you'll have all info you want, if he can remember it…

Poor Bakura was just glad no one had used that against him in Egypt.

"Uh-huh." Yami didn't believe it. "You must've made him give you one." Bakura sighed.

"No, I didn't make him. I went to talk to him, and bam! I get a cake and presents," Bakura growled at a memory of his. "Never really liked birthdays much, so why would I have one deliberately?" Yami blinked.

"You don't like birthdays? But you were at the one everyone threw for him." Bakura growled. He had forgotten that the brat had seen him.

"I couldn't have protected him from you if you pulled something funny without taking over, and then you would've really tried to hurt him the next time you tricked him," Bakura said, trying to give an adequate reason for his actions. It was true, after all.

"You didn't know it was his birthday, did you," Yami said, seeing right through his attempt. "And how would you have protected him without taking over?"

"That's for me to know, and you to never find out," Bakura yawned as they walked out of the building. "Are you still blocking the kid?"

"Maybe."

"That's a little…devious of you, Pharaoh," the whitenette said, grinning evilly. Yami looked away.

"And? He doesn't need to hear what you say. I think he'll be fine, he's probably sleeping."

"Or… he's worried that we're fighting in a Shadow Game. _Ryou's_ sleeping. I know, and I don't block him unless I'm being, well, me and challenging someone to a Shadow Game. He's been around me long enough to know when I'm acting evil, Yami." He dropped the 'formalities'. He was just too tired. The moment he got home, he was going to bed. Ryou can do his own homework later.

"_Acting_ evil? I thought you _were_ evil?" Yami said with an eyebrow raised. Bakura wasn't listening.

"I think this is your stop, Pharaoh," he said, gesturing to the Game Shop. Yami pouted. This obviously didn't make him happy.

"Fine… maybe Yugi'll call later."

"Be sure to unblock him first. He'll be mad though. And don't expect an answer," Bakura yawned before he left to go home.

--====-----====---

Ryou woke up in his bed at about seven that night. He groaned and stretched and stood up, rubbing his shoulder. He made it to his computer before just collapsing into the chair.

"I wonder if Danny's written," he muttered, too tired to really think. He signed onto the machine and yawned. After he checked his e-mail, he was going back to bed.

He clicked on the mail button, and was greeted with an oh-so subtle HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYOU! Written on a banner that crossed the screen with little ghosts floating about.

Ryou couldn't help it. He giggled, waking his yami up.

//What now? Is the building caving in?// Ryou burst out laughing.

/N-No, Bakura. Danny remembered my birthday. He sent this weird thing with ghosts and stuff/ Ryou managed to choke out in his mind. Bakura was just too lazy to materialize right now.

//Does it have blood?//

/No, not this time. Maybe he'll send something with blood later. I'll tell him too, at least/

//Good. I'm going back to sleep. Don't wake me up again//

/Okay. Night/ he was answered with Bakura's light snoring. He clicked the 'reply' button and wrote back to his friend. He told the other boy about the party his friends had thrown, and the one he threw for his yami. Once the letter was typed, he saved the address so that he knew who he was talking to later. He yawned as he checked the rest of his mail, double-checking any mail that Yami or the others sent, so that he could tell his other that there was mail for him.

After a while, Ryou logged out and stumbled back to his bed, losing consciousness as soon as he felt the mattress.

--====-----====-----====-----====-----====-----====-----====-----====-----====-----====---

That's the chapter! It was longer this time, and I think I'm stepping over the plot holes instead of falling in...

Ryou: Yeah, the last time you fell in it took a while for you to crawl out. Weren't your friends worried?

Bakura: She had friends?

Of course I had friends! Bad Bakura! Don't say stuff like that! And yes, Ryou, I think they were worried. They seemed pretty relieved once I came to school at least...

Bakura: *sigh* Can I use the knife? I'm sure that the Pharaoh would like it.

No, Yugi would get mad at me. Mad Yugi is sooo not fun to mess with.

Ryou: Er, yeah. Ummm... Review please!!


	7. A Threat from the Past

In this chapter, Bakura does the most cruel thing known to man...

Bakura: What? What do I do? TELL ME!!!!

No! That'll ruin the story.

Bakura: Fine. I'll just ask Ryou.

He won't tell you.

Bakura: And why wouldn't he tell me?

I gave him candy. And cupcakes. And muffins. He's totally bribed.

Bakura: You know he can't have sugar! He's ADHD!

So? It's not like he'll kill someone over it. I'm ADHD, and I don't get hyper.

Bakura: But I was told that people with ADHD can't have sugar...

Whatever. I'm sure he'll be fine.

Disclaimer: I don't own the shows. Wish I did, but I don't.

Chapter 7: A Threat From the Past

Bakura woke up in his soulroom the next morning and stretched at his stiff 'limbs'. He heard the television news reporter blabber on about something, as he sat up on his bed. It was a nice bed, with black-red satin sheets, black and red pillows, and an ivory bed-frame. There was a knock at his door, annoying him already as he stood up and opened it, allowing the shadows in his room to conceal what furniture there was.

Ryou was waiting outside it, since he didn't like the way Bakura had his room set up. The spirit knew it scared him, but he didn't know how to fix it so that Ryou wouldn't be afraid to open the door. Bakura half-thought about asking the Pharaoh if he knew how... Nah, he wasn't going to.

"What is it, hikari?" Bakura yawned slightly. The whitenette seemed unhappy...

"No school today, apparently there was some break in and the building is being checked over so that they can figure out how and who. You didn't have anything to do with it, did you?" So he was unhappy because he couldn't go to school. What a weird kid.

"No, I swear on the Ring that I was sleeping. So what are you going to do today?"

"I figure I could look at those cards that Yugi's grandfather gave me, and maybe see if I could make some outfits that Tea would approve of. I heard her say something about coming over or something if I didn't..."

"Alright, I'll be out in a few minutes. At least there won't be any idiots telling you what to do..." Ryou nodded and walked away, as Bakura went back into his room. The Shadows moved back again as Bakura went to his dresser. Now that Ryou had more clothes to wear, Bakura could wear just about anything he wanted, unless he took over the body. He pulled out a pair of black jeans and a white t-shirt with a black jean jacket.

//... How did we get the clothes here again?//

/... ... ... I have no idea/

Once he was dressed he pulled on a pair of black sneakers that materialized out of nowhere and walked out of his room.

---====----====----===--

Ryou jumped as Bakura materialized next to him on the couch.

"Boo," he smirked as Ryou shot a playful glare at him. For once, they were wearing something different from each other. He was wearing a white t-shirt and light blue jeans with the same black sneakers Bakura was wearing. _So that's where they came from._ "So any news?"

"It's only been a few minutes, but no. So far, there's nothing missing and they can't find any traps or anything, so we might be going to school tomorrow."

"Damn," he muttered, ignoring Ryou's 'language, Bakura'. "Tomorrow's... Friday isn't it? Can't they give us the rest of the week off?"

""I don't know. Maybe if they find something that can be seen as evidence, they'll keep looking at the school for more clues." Bakura's eye's lite up.

//I know...//

"No. You can't plant evidence just because you don't wanna go to school," Ryou said as someone knocked on the door. Bakura threw his hands in the air.

"Why is it that whenever I'm out of the Ring, someone comes to visit?" he stood up as he spoke, more out of habit than anything else.

"Bakura," Ryou started, but the spirit waved him down.

"It's probably just Yugi asking if you can come over. Don't worry, I'll be good." Bakura reached for the door, and watched his hand go through the doorknob before he remembered that he hadn't made himself solid yet. He sighed before solidifying and opening the door.

Tea and Joey stood outside his door, as Bakura stood there, shocked. The Pharaoh's fanclub seemed determined to include Ryou in whatever they were doing.

Tea was the one that broke the silence.

"You're the bad Bakura, aren't you?" her words were a whisper, but Bakura heard it. He sighed. Is that all they knew? The world isn't black and white, for Ra's sake! Yami's eyes were red too, after all!

"Well, if you want to give titles... yeah, what's it to ya?" Bakura said, stepping back into the house, waving his hand as a sign of invite. Tea started to go in, but Joey grabbed her arm. Bakura noticed. He groaned. "For the love of Ra, Wheeler! The place isn't booby-trapped!"

"Why should we believe you? You hurt the good Bakura alla time!" Joey said, pointing obnoxiously.

//Wanna come out and tell them?//

/they can't keep secrets, yami. One word and they'll run to Yugi and then we'll have to watch for Shadow Games/

//...I hate it when you're right//

"I'm not telling you to believe me, but you must've come for a reason. So, fess up or leave, okay?" he sighed again as the rest of what the mutt said came to him. "And I haven't hurt him lately!"

Joey was about to say something else, but Tea cut him off. She had been looking at his outfit and liked what she saw.

"At least you're dressed nicely. Did your other put that on or did you?" Bakura thought about that. The one day they wear something different, _she_ has to come!

"I put this on, but Ryou is wearing something else," he said.

"How? Don't you share a body?" Tea asked as Joey tried to figure it out. The most that used to change between Yugi and Yami was the shoes in Duelist Kingdom, but that's stopped since Yugi started wearing leather and boots...

"I know you can't keep a secret, so I can't tell you," Bakura said, finding the look on Joey's face amusing.

//The stupid is hurting his brain, hikari//

/Bakura!/

//What? It's true// he heard Ryou sigh in the den as the reported started blabbering again.

Good thing the den wasn't the living room. Tea had finally dragged Joey inside as she started harping on about what colors would go with his eyes and how he should wear his hair if he ever put it up.

//Gods! I'm not a girl!//

/I'm sure she's just trying to help... You know that it's rude to keep people standing around, right?/ Bakura sighed mentally.

//Do you think that you could go into the Ring so that they don't see you and you don't have to hide?//

/I've tried, sorry/

//Don't be. It's not your fault you're bad at hiding//

/Thanks for the vote of confidence, Bakura/

//You're welcome. So go into the... geez, what other room is there?//

/Uh, my room? Oh wait! Duh, I'm stupid. I'll hide in there/ Bakura had to keep himself from rolling his eyes as Ryou walked into his bedroom. He turned to his 'guests' and cleared his throat, successfully diverting their attention away from the decorations they had encountered.

"There is a newscast in the den and stuff, you know," he said. Joey looked at Bakura skeptically,

"Why are you being so nice, anyways?" the blonde asked with an eye brow raised.

"I dunno, maybe cause I want to?" Bakura shot back. He was tired of them already as he went into the den.

The computer sat in a corner with several paintings hung around it, Tea noted. It was crowded, but in a way that made it...well, not crowded. There were even more paintings hung everywhere that they could, ranging from small, Slightly-bigger-than-a-photograph to large, close to wall sized paintings of various landscapes, flowers, and swirls of dark colors. There were candles set up in various arrangements, none of them looked like they'd ever been lit, and there were several styles of candles from tea lites to the big, bulky kind that Tea had only seen used for their fragrance. There were three couches, all set in some strange arrangement around a large TV and a coffee table, and a couple bean bag chairs settled near a pretty nice bookshelf against the wall leading to the kitchen. There was a large entertainment center with another television that seemed to have a few game systems hidden within the cabinets, Joey noticed that one was ajar, possibly meaning that Bakura (or Ryou) had been playing on it. Several dragon, fairy, and other mythological-creatures-that-neither-Tea-nor-Joey-could-recognize statues decorated every empty space that they could find.

"Wow," Tea breathed. No one but Yugi had been here, and even then he'd only gone as far as the kitchen, but he'd never said anything about the den. Bakura smirked.

Even though the two had kept their distance before, Tea brushed past to see what books Ryou had. Joey looked at the entertainment center's contents.

"Holy cow, Bakura! Why didn't you say that you played video games? I'd've invited you over more, evil or not!" Joey said as he checked out the types of games the whitenette owned. Bakura shook his head at Joey's antics. Maybe this was why Yami stuck with these people. They were fun to watch when they were excited.

"The books seem to be really good. Have you read them all?" Tea asked looking his way.

"Er, no not yet. Haven't had the time to do anything lately," he said as Tea picked one out and read the back.

"_The investigation at Domino High School has finally yielded a clue as to who might have broken in last night_," the news reporter said, drawing the three's eyes toward it. Joey stood up and walked over to the television, ending up being right next to the spirit and Tea ended up on Bakura's other side. Ryou peeked in from his bedroom door frame.

A picture of the Eye of Ra spray-painted on one of the school's walls—near Ryou's locker and homeroom, Bakura noted—with a message in hieroglyphics underneath showed up on the screen.

"_As seen here, whoever did this is fluent in Ancient Egyptian, that much is certain. The police have gotten a translator and more information will be revealed shortly—"_ Joey tapped Bakura on the shoulder, since the already pale teen had gone nearly pure-white.

"What's wrong? What's it say?" the blonde boy said, trying to get Bakura to snap out of it, whatever 'it' was. It worked. It made the boy blink, at least.

"Do you want the truth, or a little lie that'll keep you from prying into other people's business?" Bakura quizzed as he picked up the remote and paused the screen to see if he had indeed read it right.

"Er... the truth? Hey, Tea, do ya think Yugue's watchin this too?"

"Maybe... Bakura, are you alright? You don't look well," she said, trailing off when Bakura's red eyes shot to her.

"Do both of you want to know what it says?" Tea nodded and Joey looked at Tea before nodding himself. "Okay, just remember it cause I'm not repeating it for the Pharaoh."

"Wouldn't he know what it says, too?" Tea asked. It was a reasonable question, but Bakura really didn't want to answer. Still, he had to.

"He's probably forgotten it all. I said 'hello' once in that language, and he didn't understand me. Okay it says _'Children of the Shadows and Light, be wary, We are coming' _ signed 'the Unknown'," Bakura said. Tea committed the phrase to memory as Joey thought for a moment.

"The Unknown? Is this another crazy person after the Millennium Puzzle? No offence, 'Kura." Joey said.

"None taken. And it's not the Puzzle these guys're after, it seems. The Unknown _I _knew were ruthless and terrorizing. I don't doubt they've faded and disbanded over the last five millennia. Maybe they regrouped after so long, but for them to attack a _school_ is pretty low for them. They usually are able to find and attack the individuals they're looking for," he said. There was a loud yell from the bedroom, attracting all the attention as Bakura ran to the door. Tea and Joey stood behind him, shocked at what they saw.

Ryou was sitting on the bed staring at a hand-sized black spider that was moving its forelegs threateningly at the whitenette. Brown eyes shot their way a moment before the boy whimpered a bit. The spider hissed at him again as Bakura sighed.

"Hikari, you are a wimp. He just wants to play," Bakura said, oblivious to the teens standing behind him as he walked to the bed. Tea covered her mouth when Bakura lifted the spider up in his hand. It walked onto his arm before going back to his hand and _purring_. "See? You freak out too much." The boy walked over to the window and opened it to let the spider out. He turned around and saw the teens there in the doorway. "Dammit!" he swore.

"Bakura!" said spirit growled and sat on the bed with his arms crossed, pouting, and mumbling something about letting the spider eat Ryou.

"How is he—what's going on, Bakura?" Tea asked, looking at both of them.

"Promise you wont tell?" Ryou asked timidly as Bakura started really thinking about the spider. Now that Ryou thought about it, that beast was a tad too tame to be wild.

"I dunno... It's kinda a pretty big secret ta keep, if ya know what I mean," Joey said, scratching his head. He turned to Tea as she thought about it.

"Only if you let me pick out your outfits for the next week," she answered, cocking her head and letting one eye close.

The boys' mouths all dropped. Joey's from Tea willingly keeping a secret from Yugi and Yami, and the whitenettes' from the horrors of Tea coming over every morning to pick something out for them.

"Er, Tea? Instead of you picking something out, how about you just see if what I wear is, ano, cool enough?" Ryou asked as Bakura gulped. Bakura obviously didn't trust himself to speak at the moment.

"Well... you both picked out pretty good outfits today, especially you," she said, looking at Bakura. "So I guess I can come over with Yugi to check on the outfit you're wearing." Bakura looked smug at the compliment.

"Tea! How could we keep somethin like this secret from our bestest bud? I think he needs to know about this," Joey said, crossing his arms. Bakura sighed.

"Look, Wheeler. If the Pharaoh knew about this, he wouldn't let Yugi go to survival camp like he promised," Bakura said, remembering the conversation he'd had with Yami the day before.

"Survival camp?" all three mortals asked.

"Yeah, and by the way, Ryou, I'm signing you up too." Ryou groaned and fell against his headboard.

"Again? Last time you ended up having something planned for that week," the boy pouted softly. Bakura ignored him.

"The Pharaoh no baka said that as long as Ryou was going and I was in no position to do anything Yugi could go. I want the pipsqueak to be able to fend for himself if he gets separated from everyone, don't you?" Bakura's smirk appeared on his face as the dancer and the mutt thought about it.

"Okay, I can see where you're going with this. I like the idea of Yugi learning how to take care of himself... But what about us?" Joey said, pointing to his own face. Bakura blinked.

"What about you? If you go with him to the camp, he won't learn how to take care of himself without you. Like I told Yami, you're not going to be able to reach him when he needs your help if he looks to you all for support like he does. I don't mind that he sticks to you all like glue and all, but he shouldn't _need_ to have you around to help him through day-to-day things," Bakura pointed out. Joey frowned a little at being left out of this task, but seemed to accept it.

"Yeah, when you go to the camp, they teach you how to build fires and shelters in case you get lost or separated from a group. Or just want to get away from everything," Ryou piped in for his yami's benefit.

"Okay, we'll keep this a secret. But the moment something happens that your...ability...causes, we have to tell Yugi and the Pharaoh. Alright?" Tea said as Bakura and Ryou listened.

"Seems fair," Ryou said as Bakura nodded in agreement.

"Can Yugue and the Pharaoh do the same thing?" Joey asked, wondering if he should watch out for two Yugi's now with two Bakura's.

"Doubt it," Bakura snorted.

"So, ah, the Unknown, Bakura?" Ryou asked, changing the topic. Bakura sighed. He stood up as Tea and Joey took the hint and walked back into the den. Ryou got up and followed his yami. The two guests were sitting down on one couch by the entertainment center. Ryou sat down next to Bakura on the couch opposite the others'.

"Well... the Unknown called themselves the Unknown because they were so secret, no one knew who was in the group until one of them came to kill you. They came after me a few times. That's how I know about them."

"So you knew who some of the people in the group was?" Joey asked, leaning closer. Tea wished that she had brought her notebook. Oh well, Joey might remember what she couldn't.

Bakura winced.

"Yeah, I knew one of them personally," he said, remembering who it was. Ryou looked at Bakura and could have sworn that he saw tears in his other's eyes. Ryou blinked and the image was gone.

"Who was it?" Tea found herself asking. Bakura was being too quiet. He usually talked about what he knew as a way of boasting and showing Yami up in knowledge. This was...unnatural for the tomb robber.

"My best friend."

---====----===---===---===---===----===--===----=====----====---===---===---===--===--==-=

Dun dun duuuuunnn! Evil cliffie! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!

Bakura: You're happy you made an evil cliffie-thing?

Ryou: Oh, let her be. She's writing eight pages of you doing whatever. You should be glad she's so nice to you.

Bakura: Doing whatever? Ryou, are you feeling alright?

Ryou: Yup! Hey, what's that? *runs off to nearest shiny thing*

... ... I think he's had a bit too much sugar today... ...

Bakura: Is that as bad as when I'm hyper?

Worse. You just go on a thieving spree. He literally bounces off the walls... I should have listened to you... *cries at lost dignity*.

Bakura: Yup. Worse. Oh well, since he's over there I guess I have to tell everyone to review... ... But I won't.

You just did.

Bakura: No I didn't. *crosses arms*

*sigh* Review please!


	8. The Unknown

Hey, I think we got the phone out of the plot hole!

Bakura: How would it've fallen in?

Ryou: You'd be surprised. Ooh, the Unknown are gonna fall in next!

What are you talking about?

Ryou: *Points at very large group of black-robed people walking past a really big pit*

Bakura: Holy Ra! One of them fell in! C'mon, let's go see if it has spikes at the bottom!

Hey! Wait for me!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the bad guys.

Chapter 8: The Unknown

"What?! Your best friend?" Joey said, either not understanding that Bakura had a friend, or that he had one on the inside. The spirit nodded. He leaned forward and clasped his hands together.

"I...can't remember his name, but our parents were really close, so that closeness had spread to us. We'd been friends since we were little, at least until Yami's father's brother—who was also part of the Unknown with a large part of the guard as well---came to our village. We both managed to get out of there, but we got separated. I thought that he'd been found and killed, so I just moved on with my life. It wasn't until he was sent on a mission to kill 'the king of thieves'— and he didn't know that it was me until he came to get me—that I found out he was still alive," Bakura explained. He left out the part where he had wished they hadn't gotten separated, and that he wished he had known where his friend was so he could move on in peace. He had to hide his pain behind the mask that was his face as he moved through the ranks to get to his position as King of Thieves.

"Wait, so you're the King of Thieves? Is that why you and the Pharaoh don't get along?" Tea asked, her I-know-something's-wrong-with-him sense tingling. She didn't want Bakura to be upset over something that he had no control over.

"No... He just doesn't like me and I can't figure out what to do to make him stop hating me. I know Yugi is trying to help with his...preferences, hence why he comes over to talk to Ryou as much as he does, but as far as I can tell, nothing short of saving the world single-handed and apologizing profusely for stealing his spotlight could make Yami even try to imagine me doing a good deed." Joey blinked, taking this tidbit of info into account.

"The Pharaoh isn't like that," Joey thought out loud. "Is he?" Bakura and Ryou shrugged in unison.

"He's usually the one that everyone turns to when they need help with something," Ryou answered. "He's probably used to being the only one capable of rescuing people, so he'll feel left out or abandoned if he's not the one that's doing everything."

"I never thought about it like that," Tea said. "Usually we don't think about whose really needed to help, just that all of us were there. We took it one challenge at a time," she trailed off, finally seeing that it really was what they were used to, that was why Yami never said 'no'. He needed to be needed for something or he would feel like he was useless and shouldn't try to do anything...

"So, 'Kura, what was your friend like, like what did he look like?" Joey asked, trying to change the subject. He wanted to make Bakura feel better, but he also wanted the whole story. He could figure out the former later, after he knew more about this spirit. Man, Yami ain't gonna like this much...

Bakura thought for a moment, calling on an old memory.

"Last time I saw him, he had long black hair, about waist length... and dark-dark blue eyes," he said, then his eyebrows came together in a really bishie way that even Tea had to admit made him look adorable. Not that she'd say so out loud. "After that... I have no idea."

"None?" Tea asked, surprised. Bakura remembered his life, so him not remembering his best friend was surprising.

"Memory tends to fade after five millennia, Tea. I don't exactly go searching for images of my old 'buddies', especially after they've died or had turned against me and then disappeared on me. Sometimes it's better to let some memories fade away," he answered, turning his thoughts to what the Unknown might've wanted at the school. Now that he thought about it, that spider...

Bakura stood up and walked into the bedroom for a moment, Joey and Ryou standing to see what he was up to. The whitenette reached the window and looked out of it.

"I thought you would be here," he muttered as he opened the window, allowing the same black spider from before to crawl back in. He led the spider onto his hand and turned back to the door, knowing that the other boys were there. Ryou immediately went back into the den after seeing the spider in his other's hand.

"Watch out, Tea. He's got the spider again," Ryou warned as Bakura walked past Joey who was in the middle of one of his freak out moments. The spirit walked into the kitchen and put the spider into a large jar with a lid on it. There were leaves and sticks and other nature stuff inside, saying that that was what the jar was used for anyways. "Bakura! It'll eat the insects!"

"I doubt it. This spider grew up on magic," he said, waving his hikari off. He turned to the other two as Ryou pouted. "The Unknown used spiders as spies, mostly so that they knew when their targets were alone. The reason this one hated Ryou so bad was because he was tamed and taught to identify the victim."

"Then why'd it calm down when you picked it up?" Tea asked. Bakura and Ryou were almost completely identical other than the eye color and the way their hair was spiked. That spider couldn't have known which was its target...

"Dunno... maybe it felt my magic and liked it anyway?" he guessed, shrugging. "Anyway, this spider was probably the first one that they tried magic-ing like the originals did. Whoever is pulling the Unknown back together have done their homework, but don't know how to feed the spiders right." Joey had recovered from his 'moment'. He looked at the spider.

"What makes you say that?" the blonde asked as the spider noticed him and clicked his jaws.

"The ones that came when they attacked my village were huge, as in as long as your arm and as wide as you are," the spirit answered. Then something occurred to him. "They might come for you, since all of our lockers are in the same area."

"What!?!?!" Joey said, eyes widening. Tea had a similar look of shock on her face. Ryou looked shocked too, more that Bakura knew this stuff and who might be targeted than that he himself was a target.

Bakura just crossed his arms and nodded.

"I want you to all—including Yugi and the pharaoh—to be around as many people as you can. Get Kaiba to host a tournament or something, it doesn't matter, as long as no one can get you alone. Pass the message along, because anyone who has classes or a locker on that hall could be a target," he said as Tea's cell phone rang.

"Hello?" Bakura silenced as he recognized the Pharaoh on the line. Tea nodded at something. "Yeah, we saw it. Ryou translated it for us... ...Don't worry, we'll fill you in... ...Okay, we'll be there soon, see you at the Game Shop." She hit the end button as the conversation ended. Joey looked at her.

"Game Day cancelled?" he asked, pouting.

"Game Day cancelled." Tea sighed and looked at Bakura. "The Pharaoh called. He wants us there so that we can figure everything out. Maybe you would come...?" she trailed off as the two whitenettes caught on. Bakura thought about it while Ryou had already made up his mind. Ryou was voting to go and help.

"Okay...but you know the fool won't like it," the spirit answered. Joey looked up.

"So you're in?"

"Naturally." Bakura disappeared into Ryou's room for a moment and when he came back out he was carrying a light-blue jean jacket. He threw it to Ryou, who gave him a questioning look. "To cover the bandage."

"Oh, right. I'd forgotten it was there," he said as he pulled it on. He didn't know if the stab wound Bakura had given him scarred, mostly because he was too lazy to take the bandage off. Bakura gave Tea a 'Well?' look. She nodded as she looked the hikari over.

"You know, you have a good eye for fashion," she said as Bakura looked at her like she was crazy.

"Wha—no, no, I just figured that blue went with blue," he said, walking closer to Ryou. "And now for my vanishing act," he said as he disappeared into the Ring, leaving Joey and Tea surprised.

"What the—oh right. I forgot he was a spirit...Now I feel dumb," Joey mumbled, sad. Tea patted him on the back before turning to Ryou.

"Are you coming?"

"Of course! Are you all ready to go?" Joey nodded eagerly as Tea made sure she had put her phone back into her purse.

"Okay, he's waiting, so we'd better hurry!" the brunette said as she led the way out of Ryou's house.

"You get the impression that she didn't like my house," Ryou said to Joey as they left. The blond could only just stifle a laugh.

----=====-----=====-----====

Yugi watched from his soulroom as Tea, Joey and—to his surprise—Ryou walked up to his door. Yami was surprised too, since Bakura usually didn't let Ryou come to his house. Tristan was waiting in the living room with Grandpa for everyone.

Grandpa had translated the warning. Yami didn't like it one bit. Whoever these 'Unknown' people were, they were so getting mind crushed into the next millennia.

Ryou stepped onto the porch of the Game Shop lightly before he went to push the door bell. Unfortunately, Yami opened the door before he could hit the button.

"Hi, Pharaoh. Tea and Joey invited me," Ryou explained, seeing Yami's glare. Why didn't the guy want him around? People should stick together, you know, the whole 'united we stand, separated we fall' thing? Yami really couldn't be jealous...

Could he?

The two in question ran up behind the whitenette, panting.

"Yeah, we invited him," Joey breathed out. He fell on his butt in exhaustion while Tea was content with leaning over and holding herself up. "Man your fast, Bakura!" Ryou flashed an apologetic smile. He didn't know why he had run so fast, maybe it was habit from running in the Shadow Realm or something.

"His evil half knows about the Unknown, so we thought that they could help us understand what was going on," Tea panted. Ryou and Yami offered her their hands and helped her into the house so that she could sit down properly. Joey walked in beside them.

"He probably knows about it because he's part of it," Yami muttered as they walked in.

"No way, Pharaoh. Not this time," Joey said as they walked into the living room.

"And why not? He's sided with every other villain. What makes this one different?"

"He didn't side with Pegasus," Ryou commented. "And these people are naming themselves after a group that killed Bakura's family and friends. He's not stupid. He wouldn't go join someone that killed the people he loved."

"That was probably a sob story to get you to feel sad for him. He most likely made it up."

"He said that your uncle was in on it, Yami. That's a big thing to make up," Joey said, sticking up for his new friend. Yami looked speechless for a moment.

"My...uncle?" Ryou realized that saying something about the Pharaoh's family was confusing the spirit. Yami shook his head at it, disbelieving. "That must be impossible. I refuse to believe anything a thief says." The spirit crossed his arms in a defiant manner as Ryou sighed.

"No one is expecting you to believe everything you hear, Yami, but it would be nice if you at least listened. That warning was painted right by our lockers. It could just be for one person, or the whole school. I was attacked by a giant spider for Ra's sake!" Ryou said as Joey made sure he didn't have to break up a fight.

"It wasn't that big," Joey said softly. Ryou shot a look in his direction that shut him up and Bakura kinda proud. Ryou was learning.

"What do spiders have to do with these people?" Grandpa asked, standing up.

"Yeah, spiders are spiders. Right?" Tristan said, not understanding that Ryou was trying to help. After all, Bakura had usually not let him near them during any of the other 'adventures' they'd had.

"Tris, this spider was evil. It was as big as 'Kura's hand and was black and," Joey shuddered, not having a word to describe what else it was.

"''Kura'?" Yami repeated.

"How do you know it was as big as his hand?" Grandpa asked, thinking about it.

"He picked it up and put it in a jar," Tea said. Ryou and Yami had gotten into a glaring match that only ended when Joey stepped between them. Yami looked away and Ryou sat down. Why didn't Yami just trust him?

"So?" Tristan asked. "Why's a spider important?"

"Oh! Well," Ryou thought for a moment, "The Unknown tamed spiders as spies so that they knew all of their target's movements."

"And evil Bakura said something about them feeding the spiders magic so that they grew bigger," Tea remembered.

"Feeding them magic? Isn't that just a little farfetched?" Tristan criticized. Yami was in agreement with him, even if Yugi was willing to listen.

"How does your other know about this, Bakura?" Grandpa asked. He obviously didn't know anything about the Unknown.

"Ano... His village was attacked when he was little by them, and he had a few assassination attempts on him," Ryou said, remembering what Bakura had told him. The spirit was being pretty quiet.

"And his best friend had joined them," Tea put in. She was just trying to help, but Yami's biased mentality twisted the words.

"So he _was_ part of the Unknown," Yami concluded. Ryou suddenly found himself in his soulroom. But he could still hear the conversation.

"No, my friend was an idiot that deserved whatever they did to him after he failed to kill me," Bakura growled, surprising everyone. He stood up and walked to the door. "If you aren't going to listen, baka, then I'm leaving. See you around, ahou." Bakura opened the door and left before anyone else had gotten up to stop him.

Bakura snuck a look back to see Yami's face. Strangely, Bakura's mood didn't change.

The Pharaoh seemed to be surprised that he'd taken over. Or was it at what he'd said?

Bakura shook his head and continued the walk to his house. No, he'd said the same insults before. Yami wouldn't be surprised at his choice of words. The fool probably wouldn't be surprised if Bakura had just cussed him out. He'd block Yugi from them and probably not understand half of what he said, but he'd know what they were.

Idly, he wondered if Yami was still going to go through with the survival camp idea. It was obvious Yugi needed to know what it was like to be separated from his friends, and the only way to learn was to go somewhere without them.

But... was it safe now?

With the Unknown running around again, Bakura so far only knew one target, and that was just because he knew about the spiders. What if there were other animals they used as spies? What if they were after the Millennium Items, but they didn't know that one held a spirit that was familiar with their namesake—

"_Who you gonna call? GHOST BUSTERS!" _ The sound came from nowhere. Bakura jumped at it before reaching into his pocket and pulling out the phone Tea had given them for their birthday. It rang again before he opened it and held it to his ear.

"Hello?" he answered in Japanese. The caller, however, spoke in English.

"_Hey! ... Which Bakura am I talking to?"_

//Hikari! Who did you give this number to?//

/... Danny?/ Bakura sighed.

"Tomb Robber Bakura. Ryou's in his room." He switched to English himself pretty easily.

"_Really? We haven't been properly introduced yet, I'm Danny Fenton. Ryou sent me the number this... morning I think?"_

"You don't know?" the boy on the line laughed.

"_I was trying to remember what the time was there." _ Danny yawned, though Bakura could tell he was trying to keep the sound away from the phone.

"Late night, Danny?"

"_I just got home, and I saw the number so I wanted to call. Someone sounds tired, too. Having a bad day, Bakura?"_ the boy quipped. Bakura laughed. This was definitely making him feel better.

"Maybe. Were the ghosts annoying?" Bakura said as he started walking again.

"_Always. That and I have, like fifty ghost hunters all wanting to kill me. Apparently 'get Danny Phantom's head on a plate' is a fun game."_ Bakura covered his mouth to keep from laughing too loud. He was in public, after all.

"Sounds like it. Can I join the fun?" The sarcastic remark was met with laughter. "What time is it there, anyway?"

"_About... 2 in the morning_," Danny answered, yawning again.

"Then you'd better get to sleep before you pass out tomorrow. I doubt your friends would be too thrilled if they found out you stayed up all night talking to a friend they haven't met yet."

"_Okay... I'll call back before I go to school then_." He yawned again. "_Bye_."

The phone gave the dial tone before he closed the flip-phone. Ryou's transparent form appeared next to him.

"So, do you like him?" the boy asked. Bakura smiled.

"Maybe." The smile faded. "What are we going to do about the Unknown, though?"

"I guess we'll have to keep our eyes open for another spider or something. How do they pick their targets, anyway?"

"Umm, I wouldn't be surprised if it was at random, Ryou. I would only guess that they chose people that either opposed them, were too weak, or were too strong. Other than that, I don't know," Bakura shrugged as he opened the door to his house.

"And they hate me because...?"

"Spider's gone."

"What?"

"The spider is gone. Someone came for it and took it," Bakura clarified as he inspected the now lidless jar. He lifted the lid that was lying next to the jar and screwed it back on before any of the bugs could get out. "Whoever did it was here just a few minutes ago." Bakura suddenly started searching the house for signs of a break in. Ryou smartly stayed where he was, transparent and out of his yami's way. Bakura went back into the kitchen and checked the cabinets and under the sink.

About ten minutes later, someone knocked on the door. Bakura swept past his other and looked out the peephole in the door.

"Who is it?" Ryou asked, wondering if he should go to his soulroom.

"The mutt," the spirit said, opening the door. Ryou caught a glimpse of Joey's face while Bakura really saw it. To put it in layman's terms, Bakura was stunned.

Joey looked like he'd been in a really rough fight with someone, he had a bruised cheek and another bruise was forming on his jaw. His lip was split, and he seemed to have just missed having a black eye since he had a scuff on his temple. Bakura finally managed to blink.

"Are you alright?" Bakura asked. He'd never seen him this bad. Sure, they'd heard that Joey got into fights easily, but they'd never actually seen him after one...

Joey nodded, but he seemed really upset over something.

Ryou materialized as he grabbed the first aid kit from the bathroom before Bakura invited the boy in. Joey sat on the couch, silence reigned when Ryou came in the room.

"What happened?" Ryou asked, handing the battered boy the box. Joey opened the box and seemed to think for a moment.

"I dunno... Me an' Tea talked to the Pharaoh after you left, y'know, about how he treats you, and Tristan just hit me." Joey pulled out an alcohol pad and pressed it to his cut.

"You yelled at the Pharaoh? I sure picked the wrong time to leave," Bakura exclaimed. Ryou saw what Bakura was imagining through their mindlink. He sighed.

"'Kura, this is serious!" Ryou scolded. He turned his attention to Joey. "Why did you yell at your friend? It doesn't seem to be something you'd do." Joey blinked.

"Well, I consida you two my friends," he explained. "Not that I'm gettin' mushy or nothin'."

"So?" Bakura said. "Why get in a fight with old friends over new friends?" it didn't make sense to the thief king. Joey rubbed his jaw.

"He didn't listen when you said that the spider spied on the guys their after, and when I said that we should stick by you," he sighed as he looked at both boys, "Yami flipped out. I don' know why he didn't like the idea, but Tristan sided with him." He crossed his arms as the whitenettes took the info in.

"So he hit you," Bakura said flatly. Joey nodded. It was obvious that the blonde didn't like how things turned out for him.

"You could stay here for the night if you want," Ryou offered.

"That's kinda what I came over for," Joey admitted.

"To stay the night?" Bakura asked skeptically.

"To ask you guys to come ova to my place." The whitenettes blinked. Joey shrugged. "It'll keep you safe, for the most part."

Bakura realized that that was a really good course of action. Ryou just blinked.

"I guess that would be a good idea," the spirit admitted. His other looked at him.

"You guess?" Bakura shrugged at Ryou.

"Well? Did you not want to go?"

"I-I didn't say that," the boy answered softly. Joey hooked his arms around the boys' shoulders.

"Then it's settled! C'mon, I'll help ya pack," Joey said, looking happier. Ryou's face lit up. Bakura let a small smile show at seeing his light happy. Joey didn't notice and brushed past them and dragged Ryou away to pack some stuff for their stay.

Bakura shook his head at them and walked over to the entertainment center. He gently lifted a statue of a long red dragon with beautiful red wings sprinkled with gold glitter spread out wrapped around a sword/tower that was embedded in the 'ground' with little pieces of gold and bone scattered around it. The dragon was roaring silently at unseen enemies.

He cradled the statue in his arms as Ryou walked back in with a small suitcase of clothes.

"What? Are we moving in?" Bakura quipped. Ryou gave a nervous smile. He spotted the dragon.

Joey walked in at that time.

"Nah, you can stay for the weekend til school starts back up," Joey clarified.

"Bringing Fayre, Bakura?" Ryou smiled. If that were a real dragon, Bakura would have spoiled her into oblivion. Bakura held the dragon closer in a protective manner.

"Mine!" he said childishly. Joey smirked and Ryou nearly giggled. Nearly meaning he choked on a laugh, which should have been impossible given that Bakura was in control of the body.

"Alright," Joey started, "time to go!" the whitenettes nodded in agreement before Ryou disappeared into his soulroom.

----=====------=====-----=====-----=====

Joey led the way to his house, talking about what games he had that they could play, and Bakura challenged him to a three-round match on one of his fighting games. They also already had a card game challenge to complete. It was the one Joey had asked for on Bakura and Ryou's birthday. Of course, Joey had accepted it.

Tea was waiting by the front door when the boys walked up. She looked sad too, but Ryou was glad to notice that she was unharmed.

Bakura was still cradling Fayre as they walked up to the brunette girl. She gave a small smile at the two. Then her face turned to one of surprise.

"What's with the dragon?"

Joey laughed and hooked his free arm around Bakura, as his other hand was filled with the bag of clothes and Ryou's toothbrush. Bakura gave the best smile that he could at her, since they were friends now, but didn't answer her question.

Joey then steered his guests into his house to his den, which was pretty bare aside from a few chairs, a table, a TV, and a couple game systems and a lot of games.

"So, 'Kura, do ya wanna play the game, or duel first?" Bakura thought for a moment.

"While the duel would be fun," Bakura smirked evilly. Joey didn't know if he'd just walked into a trap at this point, "I want to see how good you are at the game."

Joey let out a breath of air at this. Good, that meant that there wasn't going to be a Shadow Game dealing with their characters. Hopefully. If he was lucky.

"Alright then," he said as he grabbed the game case and put the disk in the system. The Playstation 2 lit up as it was turned on while Bakura and Joey sat down with controllers in hand. Joey looked at Bakura. "I hope you're ready to lose!"

Bakura gave his 'you know I'm going to win' smile.

"I'll lose to you when the Pharaoh is ready to listen, Joey," he countered as the character select screen appeared. Joey picked his favorite character (that Dragon guy that stared in all the movies he watched) while Bakura picked the 'random' button.

When the fight started, Joey had Dragon while Bakura had a girl whose name he had never bothered to learn. She had a staff that Bakura had her use to beat Dragon around with. Dragon tried to punch her away or kick her down, but Bakura knew her moves too well.

The last move was to jump over one of Dragon's kicks and bring her staff down on the man's head.

Joey groaned as the girl held her staff in both hands and bowed apologetically to her enemy with an 'I'm sorry I had to win'.

Sometime during the battle, Ryou had materialized and watched his other from behind him, leaning against the other's back. Tea had watched and now that the match was over, she noticed the more gentle whitenette.

"Hey," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder, "do you feel like dueling me?"

Ryou blinked. Tea had a deck?

Oh yeah, she dueled that Mai lady after Yugi had his butt handed to him by Kaiba. Though to be fair, Kaiba did cheat.

"Isn't your deck full of cute fluffy things?" Bakura asked as Joey picked a different character and Bakura hit the randomize button again. This time, Bakura had gotten someone that he didn't know very well, while Joey proved to know his inside and out.

"Yugi helped me fix it up."

"But it's still full of cute fluffy things," Joey said.

Bakura threw the match, just don't tell Joey. Bakura did it because he knew that if they were tied, Joey would give him a better challenge.

Ryou and Tea had started to Duel on the table which had a normal Dueling mat, with Tea already down by thirteen hundred. Ryou already felt bad about destroying her Happy Lover and Shining Friendship, but that was war. And Duels counted as war. Especially for the Pharaoh and his fanclub. Not that it was a bad thing, in fact it taught them all valuable life lessons, like never leave the duel a loser if it counts. Play it like a game no whether or not it does count or is a game, and lastly, know the difference between a game that counts and a game that doesn't.

Ryou took his turn, and played Change of Heart so that he had the only monster on her field on his side and attacked first with it, forgetting about the face down card she had.

"You activated my trap, Bakura!" she exclaimed happily. She flipped over Mirror Force, successfully destroying all the monsters on his side of the field. Unfortunately, that included hers. Ryou winced at how much that would've hurt if they were using Duel Disks, and set a monster facedown in defense mode before he turned the Duel to his opponent.

She played Dark Witch in attack mode and attacked his face down. Ryou flipped his Man-Eater bug over and Tea unwillingly put her card in graveyard as her opponent did the same with his. Ryou drew his next card and played it, taking another chunk of life points out of her total. His Sangan, were it holographic, would be looking very pleased with itself.

Tea drew a card as Bakura and Joey finished their battle, with Bakura winning, and studied her hand. None of the monsters in her hand weren't powerful enough to keep Bakura away from her life points, but the trap card...

"I put one card in defense mode, and one card face down. Your move," she said. Ryou pulled another card from his deck and smiled at it.

"I play White Magical Hat in attack mode, and I use him to attack your face down," he said. Tea flipped her trap over. "Wobaku? Darn it," he muttered before ending his turn. Bakura walked over to his hikari as Joey went to Tea.

//Are you going to play that?// he asked, seeing their semi-favorite card in his other's hand.

/That's what I'm planning. As long as Tea doesn't spring another trap card on me, I'll win/ Bakura nodded to his light before sitting beside him. Tea put another card in defense mode, and Ryou was glad to see that she didn't have another trap on the field. He played Headless Knight and attacked the facedowns with White Magical Hat and Sangan before winning the Duel by attacking with his Knight. Bakura looked smug at his hikari's victory while Joey was searching his pockets for his deck. Tea suddenly grabbed Ryou in a headlock while the other two boys weren't paying attention and dragged him over to the PS2.

"Hey!" Joey called, looking towards the hostage situation finally.

"We're going to play DDR!" she said, hugging Ryou closer in a way that said 'and there's nothing you can do about it'.

"Can't... Breathe!" the boy choked. Bakura sighed.

"But I don't have DDR!" Joey reasoned. Tea let go of Ryou and he tried to get away, but she grabbed him again while holding her own game. The mats for the game were already on the floor.

"I brought mine," she answered.

"And what would get you to let my hikari free?" Bakura asked. She couldn't keep him, after all.

"You'd have to beat me first."

---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===

Whose first to dance against Tea?

*Crickets*

Oh, come now! Don't be like that. It's just a game.

Yami: Can I play then?

Bakura: Wha—where the heck did you come from?

Yami: *shrugs* Someone said 'game' so I came to check it out.

Bakura: *Growls* No, you can't play.

Yami: Why not?

Ryou: It's DDR.

Yami: What's that?

Bakura: A dancing game. Against Te—on second thought, go right ahead, Pharaoh. Play the game *smiles evilly*

*sigh* well, that's one person... Ryou's never going to get free at this rate...

Ryou: Review? And maybe save me?


	9. Change of Heart

People have been requesting more Danny—

Bakura: But I'm a better actor!

—and so I brought a camera to Amity Park!

Danny: Wait, did you just say camera? You've been spying on me?

Ryou: At least she's subtle at it.

Danny: *grumbling*

Bakura: Hush it, she's being nice and not throwing you down one of those plot holes.

Danny: What's down those things anyway?

Ryou: Spikes. Really pointy spikes.

Danny: How do you know how pointy they were?

Bakura: He almost fell in, and he touched the tip of one.

Danny: Yikes.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, though I do own a copy of Ryou's fav card. And I hope no one minds that I use the English names for everything. *Crosses fingers*

Chapter 9: Change of Heart

---====----====----===-----====----====----===-----====----====----===--

Ryou groaned. Beat Tea? At a dancing game? At this rate, he was going to be held hostage forever.

Well, if he was a hostage with a chance for freedom, he might as well play the game.

Of course it didn't help that Bakura was laughing his head off and then criticizing his attempt.

Bakura had already figured out how to play the game after a few minutes of watching Ryou butcher the dance. Not that he wasn't any good, it was just the way Ryou was compared to Tea.

Joey took his turn after Ryou had lost and was sitting on the ground sulking. Joey ended up tripping over his own feet after a couple of steps.

Tea thought she had it won before Bakura had even stepped up to the mat. Joey was sitting next to Ryou as the two losers watched the dance-off.

The older whitenette proved to be pretty good, hitting the right steps. He might've won too, if he hadn't have gotten carried away and fallen down. He laughed until he realized what he was doing. He hastily stood up and walked over to the wall to lean against it.

Joey went over and wrapped his arm around the boy, grinning.

"C'mon, we're all friends here!" he said as Bakura tried to get out of the blonde's grasp. Joey let go willingly after the reminder, hoping that Bakura would open up to them a little more, and then walked over to Tea.

"Does that count?" he asked as Ryou went to his darkness. Bakura was fuming mentally about the game.

//Stupid game. Stupid rules. Stupid girls// and on he went.

/Don't be sore just because you lost. It's just a game/ Ryou sent.

"Nope. He didn't win," Tea said simply. Ryou groaned.

/Gre-at/ Ryou thought, letting his head hang.

//What're you whining for? You aren't in control// Bakura rolled his eyes. Ryou missed what Bakura had thought as he suddenly found himself in Tea's clutches again.

---====----====----===--

Ryou's cell rang at about six and though Tea and Joey both wondered who he had given the number to, they didn't ask. Ryou excused himself to the living room since talking to someone on the phone while holding a conversation was considered rude.

Ryou came back about ten minutes later, looking like he had just found out something good.

No one asked about the phone call, not even Bakura. Mostly because the white-haired yami had heard the conversation over the mindlink.

---====----====----===--

Eventually, everyone got hungry. Even Ryou and Bakura, though Bakura didn't know what was going on when his stomach growled. At first, he'd thought that Joey was keeping a pet monster.

Tea still had Ryou hostage, but Bakura and Joey had started on another game. This time Joey was winning.

Joey paused the game, accidentally allowing Bakura to get a strategy, and called for pizza.

Bakura had to ask Ryou what that was, but when Ryou described it, he was unsure that he would like it.

/Don't worry, Yami doesn't like it either. I think it's an acquired taste/ Ryou said, thinking about what Yugi had told him once. Bakura thought for a moment.

//Well, if the Pharaoh doesn't like it, then maybe I will// he guessed. Ryou sighed as Bakura kicked Joey's butt in the game. Joey growled at his character before pulling his deck out and shuffling it. Bakura caught on as Ryou gave him their deck. The two Duelists rose and sat at the table before beginning the Duel.

---====----====----===--

Bakura had gotten a bad starting hand, whereas Joey seemed to have gotten a pretty good one, throwing out the best cards in his deck. In fact, Red Eyes Black Dragon had found its way onto the field.

Of course, the next card he drew proved to be really good.

His smirk scared Joey a little. The blonde had to really look at the field before he realized why he was smirking. Red Eyes was the only card on his side of the field. There were no trap or magic cards. No other monsters.

Bakura played his Dark Necrofear before playing Change of Heart. Joey watched in horror as Bakura gently picked up his Dragon, placed it on his side of the field, and ordered the attack of both monsters.

Ryou cheered silently as Tea consoled her friend. Bakura handed him back his card before the doorbell rang. Joey grabbed his money as he opened the door to get the pizza.

It was pepperoni, and it tasted...off to Bakura. He looked around and saw everyone else—Ryou included—were eating it. He chalked it up being just him.

//Definitely an acquired taste// he thought. Ryou shrugged mentally.

/I'm not sure they use real meat, so that may be a reason/ he sent. It was just a thought, but it could be true. Bakura shrugged back before taking a mouthful of water to wash down the pizza.

They finished their meal before going back to what they were doing (Ryou ended up being a hostage again).

It was getting pretty late, so Tea had to go home and the boys had to get ready for bed. By this time, the fact that Ryou could disappear at any time was well forgotten, even among the whitenettes.

Ryou and Joey had packed enough clothes for both whitenettes and two toothbrushes so that they didn't have to share. The hikari/yami pair bunked in the living room.

Bakura picked the couch closest to the front door as Ryou chose an armchair under a window.

It was almost ten before they all managed to get to sleep. Of course, thanks to the mindlink, Ryou and Bakura had the same dream, about a certain card coming alive...

---====----====----===-----====----====----===--

Danny was startled awake during his English class, the only class he had without Sam and Tucker, though he kept his head down.

That woman... she was the card Change of Heart, Ryou's favorite if he remembered right. But why would he dream of her? And why now? Danny tried to remember the dream.

She hadn't talked, but she'd smiled when he came close enough to properly see her. Her wings were folded and her dress/robe was its normal blue, her blonde hair was brushed back, but something seemed wrong. The heart she usually had in her hands was gone.

He remembered her mouth moving, but she wasn't saying anything. And she knew it because her hands went to her throat after she had done so. There was no history behind that card if he remembered right, mostly because it was a magic card. Monster cards usually had some sort of history in their descriptions. As long as they weren't effect monsters, that is.

"Mr. Fenton," Lancer's voice tore through his train of thoughts, making him lose any chance of deciphering the dream. Danny looked up, obviously annoyed. Lancer took no notice at it, though and continued talking. "As long as you're awake, why don't you read with the class?" The man put a copy of Midsummer Dream in front of the raven-haired boy. Danny frowned at it. What was with this guy and Shakespeare? Danny opened the book and glared at the pages.

Jazz had already made him read the whole book. And it had taken a lot of effort because not only was the book boring as heck, he also had ghosts interrupting him just when it started to get interesting.

Danny sighed as he tried to think about his dream. He almost had what it might've meant too, but now he couldn't find his thought train again. Maybe he'll get the dream again later. If it was more than a dream, that is.

Sam and Tucker wouldn't be able to help him with this, but maybe Ryou or Jazz could. Heck, he'd ask the evil Bakura if he could help. Ishizu and Marik didn't seem to be the superstitious types, but they might know something about dreaming about the cards. But it was probably nothing. Yeah that's probably it; it's not like one of his ghost powers were to talk with trading cards...

Was it? What if this was that Shadow Magic Marik had talked about? Was it dangerous? Was that woman dangerous? He remembered what Change of Heart's magic did. She made one monster switch sides for one turn... and that was it. That was all she did. Dangerous and possibly life-threatening, but that was the limit to her magic.

And she seemed to want his help with something. Danny rested his head in his hands as he stared impassively at the open book on his desk. Mr. Lancer tried to get his attention, but failed to achieve his goal and eventually gave up. The only noise that Danny registered was the sound of the bell when the class was over.

Danny collected his books and pushed them into his bag before heading out, only to be stopped by his teacher.

"Danny, is there anything going on at home that I should know about?" Mr. Lancer asked, noting the surprised expression on the boy's face.

"No, why?" Sam and Tucker came to the door since they had noticed that Danny wasn't where he was supposed to be right then. Lancer looked at Danny like he didn't like that answer.

"Just making sure," he answered before turning and going back into his classroom. Danny blinked back at him since Lancer didn't have a reason to ask that. It was strange. Of course, that question might've come from the fact that Danny didn't remember the lesson very well, since he had other stuff on his mind.

"What was that about?" Tucker asked as the trio started walking towards their next class.

"Dunno, I think it was because I had actually read the book," Danny shrugged. It wasn't completely true, but it was the first thing that Lancer would notice. Sam and Tucker took the excuse, though, which made him wonder just how gullible his friends were.

They walked to the dreaded math class of doom, with Danny beginning to wonder if there were going to be any ghost problems today. It would be just his luck if the ghosts didn't feel like attacking today. He stared out the window, watching for ghosts, as Sam would think. But really, it was to concentrate more on his own thoughts than another's.

---====----====----===--

The day ended far too late for Danny's liking, and there had been no ghost attacks, even from the Box Ghost. Sam was commenting on that very thing, leaving Danny to wonder if there was anything they did—besides school—that didn't revolve around ghosts. Even their video games had something to do with the undead. Maybe that was just how life went for them.

It wasn't enough, Danny decided. He wanted a break from his usual day-to-day routine. Maybe he could convince his parents to have a road trip or something. Maybe go visit Canada or something. Anything that would be different. He'd call Ryou later too. It was probably close to morning there anyway. It was what, three here? Maybe it was like five or something there. Oh well, he'd asked Ryou to call when he got the chance since he was sleeping over at his friend's house, Joey's if he remembered correctly. He was having fun there, and apparently he'd gotten into a minor hostage situation, from that Tea girl. Danny wished he could pretend he was that normal. Heck, there were times when he knew he would rather have a crazy, homicidal spirit in his head than ghost powers. Not that he'd ever voice this wish. Who knows who might be listening, after all.

Sam and Tucker were talking about something, but Danny was turning to go down his street already. At least he was until Tucker grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around to face them.

"What?" Danny asked, confused.

"You haven't said a thing since math class. What's going on with you?" the other boy questioned. Sam had been the one to ask him since she had to go home early today.

"Nothing," he groaned. Why was everyone asking him that? Was he wearing a sign that said "Something's wrong with me, ask what it is!" or something?

"You're acting strange. Again. How do we know you're really Danny and not some ghost controlling your body?" he asked. That was one reason why Danny never voiced that wish. Not that Tucker would normally notice, and he definitely wouldn't have noticed if he had someone sharing his mind like Ryou did. Or maybe Yugi. Danny wondered which one was worse.

"Ask me anything," Danny said, accidentally standing a tad too straight and crossing his arms, something that he usually saved for when he was fighting ghosts.

Tucker stared at him a moment. Was Danny being defensive to him?

"Well?" Danny prompted, focusing on relaxing his stance. He had just realized it and was doing his best not to make Tucker suspicious for no reason.

"First, you have to triple swear that you'll tell the truth," the beret'd boy said, holding out his hand to start their own version of triple swearing. Danny sighed. They hadn't thought about this since Danny had gotten his ghost powers.

"Fine," he answered, mimicking Tucker's movements. Tucker seemed pleased with himself at something. Danny looked at him, smirking. "So? Are you still gonna ask a question or was that good enough?" Tucker shook his head.

"Nope, good enough for me! It was Sam that was worried," Tucker shrugged. He started walking with Danny to his house as the two talked about what Sam was worried about.

---====----====----===--

Three hours.

That was how long Tucker had stayed at Danny's house before he had to go home for dinner. Danny pulled out his deck and shuffled it before drawing the card at the top.

It seemed like everytime it was Neo the Magic Swordsman. His mother walked up the stairs as Danny shuffled his deck again.

"Danny," she called before appearing at his door. "Mr. Lancer called. What's going on at school?" Danny looked up at her, confused. He usually slept in that class to the point that Lancer had stopped calling home over it.

"What do you mean?"

"You were staring at the book he assigned like it was evil or something," she answered, looking her son over. Danny looked away.

"That book is evil," he muttered, pulling the top card off. Neo again.

"Danny, we talked about this. You have to start doing better in school."

Danny sighed in defeat and put his deck on his desk. She was right. He was never going to pass high school at this rate. Not on his own, anyways.

"Hey, Mom?" he asked before Maddie could leave. She walked in and sat down next to him.

"What is it?"

"Do you think that we could go on a vacation or something? You know, just for a week or two?"

"If you start doing better, I'll think about. Okay?" she conceded, pulling her son into a hug before Jack called up for dinner. "C'mon, I think your father'll combust if I don't finish dinner soon." Danny laughed as they went downstairs.

---====----====----===--

"So, Danny," Jazz said, wanting to start a conversation during dinner. Danny glared at her over his fork. It was spaghetti night and Jazz was trying to ruin it with talking. "What's Bakura up to nowadays?"

Danny nearly snorted. Like Jazz cared. She had never liked Ryou, and he doubted two years away from him had changed anything. Danny shrugged.

"Whatever he wants, I guess." Jazz gave him a look that said quite clearly that that wasn't the answer she wanted. "Why do you wanna know?"

"Aw, Danny!" his father whined. "I wanna know how he's doing!" Danny sighed, having to comply with his father.

"He's doing fine, Dad. He entered a couple tournaments and made finals in one," Danny said.

"Was one of those tournaments Battle City?" Jazz smirked. Danny blinked and cocked his head, not understanding.

"Yeah, why?"

"I'll be right back," Jazz said, standing up.

"What is she doing?" Danny asked his parents, both of which seemed to be as confused as he was.

Jazz came back with her laptop, hooked up to the internet. She turned on the video that had loaded.

Danny saw Bakura—he knew it was the evil one because of the red eyes and the hair was spiked differently than in the picture he had—Dueling against Yugi, though his hair was different than in the picture too. The video was in Japanese, but Danny didn't notice as Jack and Maddie walked over to watch. What Danny noticed was that they were using some weird technology to show the monsters. And that Bakura's sleeve was pushed up to reveal a bandage that had blood on it. Awed by the first, worried by the second.

"That's not his voice," Maddie muttered as they listened to Bakura talk about his Dark Necrofear's special ability. Yugi summoned a huge red dragon that seemed to be far too big for the arena. Just before Yugi ordered the attack, a dark skinned man with tattoos on his face walked out with Marik's Millennium Item. He used the Item to release Bakura from his control. It seemed like it was Ryou that fell into a kneeling position. Danny couldn't honestly tell. Whatever the boy had said was lost to the microphone that was recording.

The weakness didn't stop Yugi from attacking though. The dragon, Slifer the Sky Dragon, opened his mouth and blasted Ryou, knocking the boy to the ground. Out cold. The video ended as Yugi, his friends, the real Marik, and some other people that Danny didn't recognize crowded around to help Ryou since he looked so injured.

"See? Bakura's crazy," Jazz said, thinking that this video was all the proof she needed.

"Iie," Danny contradicted, shaking his head and accidentally using Japanese. "He was being controlled. By that Marik guy. You heard him." Totally ignore the white-blond tanned guy that really was Marik. Yeah, that makes it all the more true.

Maddie agreed while Jack was under the impression that Ryou was being possessed by a ghost. Which was close, but no cigar. Danny and Jazz argued over Ryou until the phone rang. Danny yelled at Jazz in Japanese, since he couldn't remember what he wanted to say in English right then as Maddie answered the phone.

"Danny! It's Ryou!" Maddie called, distracting Danny from Jazz, who then hit the raven haired boy over the head. Danny gave a growl Bakura would be proud of before stalking off to get the phone.

"Hello?" he said, holding the receiver to his ear.

"_Hello, Danny. Sounded like a war_," Ryou's voice flowed through. "_Is everything alright?_"

"Oh, you know Jazz. She found a video of you during the Battle City finals and thinks you're crazy," Danny answered easily,

"_Well... I must be crazy. I'm sharing my mind with the King of Thieves, and I've been hanging out with Joey, Tea _and_ Bakura since yesterday. I think the apocalypse is coming soon._" He sounded cheerful about it.

Danny laughed. "All of them? What about Yugi and Tristan? Did they not want to join the crazy?"

"_No, they had their own party to worry about."_ Ryou sighed. _"That and Tristan sided with the Pharaoh when it came down to me or him. Yami just doesn't like me."_

"Yami's that Yugi with the blonde streaks in his hair, isn't it?"

"_Yeah, he is. Why?"_

"I saw how he just attacked you in that Duel." Ryou sighed, uncomfortable with talking about it. Danny decided to change the subject. "Did Tea ever let you free?"

"_She had to go home before it got too dark, so I'm a free man till she comes back," _Ryou said, perking up audibly. Danny laughed at this, but then he heard Bakura and some other boy in the background.

"_Hey, Bakura! Who ya talkin' to?"_ it was in Japanese, but the guy had an underlying Brooklyn accent. Which didn't make sense since Danny doubted he had lived in America. Maybe his parents had, and they were from New York so that the way they spoke was how this guy learned.

"_Wheeler! It's his phone! He can do what he wants!"_ Bakura's Japanese-British accent was easy to pick out.

"How long are you staying at Joey's?"

"_Till school starts on Monday. I am so glad that we didn't have school today,"_ Ryou answered.

"Why didn't you have school today?"

"_Some idiots broke into the building and spray painted the walls on Wednesday. The police have been all over it since then trying to figure out who it was."_ Danny knew Ryou was keeping something from him, but didn't press the matter. _"Bakura! I said you couldn't do that!"_ Ryou suddenly said, totally at random. Danny laughed at it without consent from his brain. He needed to laugh anyways.

"What did he do?"

Ryou was silent for a moment. _"I don't think you wanna know."_ Danny guessed that it was just Bakura stealing something or maybe stabbing something. Ryou portrayed him to be the type. _"I'd better go before he gets too bored. Talk to you later?"_

"Yeah, later." Danny hung up, wondering what Bakura did when he was bored. Deciding he didn't want to know, he went back to finish his plate and play 'ignore Jazz'.

He started yawning long before he realized that he was tired. He said good night to his parents and then went to bed, wondering if Change of Heart was going to come back...

---====----====----===-----====----====----===-----====----====----===-----====----====----===--

I hope Danny's acting skills didn't scare any readers away...

And now it's time for—Danny! Get away from the plot hole!

Danny: *Currently leaning over the pit* What?

Get back here! Now, mister!

Danny: *Grumbles*

Bakura: Hey, if he wants to fall, why not let him?

Because then I can't finish the story!

Ryou: How long is this story going to be, anyway?

Until I say it ends. Got a problem with that? *Picks up a sword*

Everyone: No Ma'am!

Ryou, if you would.

Ryou: *Nods* Review Please!!! *Looks super-cute so that everyone reviews*


	10. Flippity Flop

*whew* this chapter is lo-ong. I'm so proud of myself!

Bakura: You're proud that you made a really long chapter?

And I got in someone special! Though I think he's confused...

Ryou: * hiding from spiders* You think?

Yeah, um, Ryou will you stand over there? Someone wants to see you.

Ryou: *walks over* who—oh Ra! My fangirls?!

Disclaimer: Me no owny Yugioh or Danny Phantom

Chapter 10: Flippity Flop

Ryou sighed as he stood up. Bakura just had to be hyper today, didn't he? Oh well, it was Friday anyway. This was usually his night to go places empty-handed and come back with a few...on sale things. Bakura called it 'shopping', but Ryou knew what it really was. Not that it stopped the yami.

But the fact that Bakura wanted to start early meant that he'd gotten into some sugar before Ryou'd woken up. Ryou shot a pleading look Joey's way, but the blond didn't understand. He thought he actually meant shopping. Poor guy.

"No, Bakura. You can't go shopping this early." /The stores are still open!/

"I wouldn't be long!" //No one will catch me. My way of shopping is fun!//

/Only to you/

//And?// Ryou sighed. There just was no way of getting through to him.

"I'll take the Ring if you try to leave," Ryou said, threatening the spirit's chances of staying in the mortal world. Bakura grumbled, but sat down anyways, beaten.

Joey just sat there confused.

"What's wrong with 'Kura goin' shoppin'? Is he like Tea or somethin'?" There was a knock on the door.

"Speak of the devil!" Bakura said, jumping behind the chair, doing a very good impression of giggling. Yup, far too much sugar. Ryou shot a look at Joey that made him flinch. But only slightly as the blond answered the door. And it was—

"Oh, hey Tea."

—Her. Maybe there was some truth to that saying. Ryou ducked behind the couch as Tea came in.

Unfortunately, Tea found both him and Bakura. This time they were both her prisoners. At least until Ryou remembered that he wasn't in control of the body. Bakura's hyperness faded fast.

//Hikari, if you leave me—// Ryou vanished from sight before Bakura could think up a proper threat. Tea looked stunned, but didn't let it last long enough for Bakura to get away. She held on with both arms wrapped around him. Joey blinked and hadn't moved from the door. Which sounded again a few minutes later. He opened it and looked surprised. Tea dragged Bakura to the door to see who it was.

Good news: It was Yugi, not Yami.

Bad news: Tristan was with him.

Bakura weighed the good and bad and decided it was okay as long as Tristan and the Pharaoh didn't start anything. Which was unlikely.

"What is it?" Joey asked, seeing his friends. They looked uncomfortable. Tristan noticed Bakura and Tea and obviously was deciding whether to ask or not. Yugi was oblivious.

"I just wanted to say sorry for the Pharaoh. He wasn't thinking straight," Yugi apologized, bowing a little. Joey looked at Tristan, who was still thinking about the odd couple that was standing by the door. Even though it looked like 'Ryou' (Tristan couldn't tell it was Bakura) wanted to get away, it might've been a trick.

"An' whattabout you, Tris?" Joey said, smirking when he noticed where his eyes were.

"I wanted to say sorry for hitting you," He said, finally taking his eyes off Tea and Bakura. He held out a hand. "Friends?"

Joey reached out and grasped Tristan's hand. "The best."

"As touching as this is," Tea pulled Bakura tighter against her to keep him from struggling, "can I get some help?" Bakura asked struggling for breath as Tea squeezed him. Tristan and Yugi jumped at his voice.

"What's going on?" Yugi's voice was hesitant. Like he wanted to know, but at the same time didn't. Tea squeezed Bakura again, and this time he couldn't breathe at all. He fought back as Joey realized he should help and came over to pry Tea's arms off. Tristan eventually helped since Tea was obviously strong when she wanted to be.

It took ten minutes before Tea released the boy. He fell on Yugi, accidentally making him fall on the floor. Bakura could barely to stand, so he scrambled off the boy as quickly as he could so that everyone could make sure Yugi was alright.

Bakura on the other hand... he was positive his ribs were bruised. They hurt like hell and Bakura couldn't move his arms from around them.

/That looked like it hurt/ he heard Ryou, who didn't seem very happy about it.

//Shove it, Ryou// he thought. Though to be fair, his predicament had been pretty serious.

But why did Tea have to be so rough with him? She hadn't hurt Ryou like that...

Idly he wondered if that was how fangirls treat celebrities... Yugi has one heck of a future coming up if so.

Joey helped Bakura up and supported him while they walked into the den, sitting him down in a chair. The whitenette's arms were still wrapped around his body. He heard Yugi talk to Tea about something, but he didn't pay attention to it. Instead he focused on ignoring the pain. After all, bruised ribs were nothing that should be folded over for.

Yugi and Joey started a Duel soon after Tea had apologized for crushing him. All that Bakura had to do was say that it was alright and make sure that Ryou wasn't in control of the body til the bruise had either gone away or stopped hurting so bad. Ryou didn't have a tolerance for pain, which Bakura had tried and failed to remedy, so it was better if he didn't have to go through it.

He managed to pull himself together enough to watch the Duel with Tristan and Tea, neither rooting for Yugi nor Joey. Tristan sided with Joey this round while Tea was rooting for Yugi. Ryou appeared in his transparent form to watch with him and stood behind the chair, leaning against his yami's shoulders.

Both Duelists seemed to have drawn bad hands, though it was Joey that had blown the secret about his. Yugi was just good at hiding the fact.

Yugi was obviously playing with an old deck of his, because he was using cards that Bakura hadn't seen since his Duel with Pegasus. Black Luster Solider had found its way onto the field while Joey had Baby Dragon out in attack mode as well as a card in the magic and trap card zone.

/He's going to play Time Wizard, isn't he?/ Ryou asked knowingly as they watched.

//Probably// Bakura answered. And they were right. When Yugi had attacked with his Solider, Joey had used it and was flipping a coin to see if he would win or not. It took a lot of courage to look at the coin afterwards, it seemed.

"Alright!" Joey said as he showed it to his opponent. Yugi nodded in agreement as he put his Solider in the graveyard and Joey fished his Thousand Dragon out of his bag, having forgotten to put it into his deck. Bakura leaned forward and was painfully reminded of his ribs. Ryou wished he could help, but even if he were able to, Bakura wouldn't want it. That was just how he was.

Of course, now that he wasn't hyper or getting crushed to death, the spirit was crashing. Hard.

But he wouldn't relinquish control to his hikari. It wasn't even noon yet, why did he have to be so tired? He blocked Ryou so that he couldn't gain control if he passed out.

He was nodding off when he felt someone grab him and pull him forward. He doubted it was Ryou, mostly because the person had to be strong to pull him anywhere, even if he was asleep.

Next thing he knew, he was in a field of flowers. So _not_ where he was supposed to be.

---====----====----===-----====----====----===--

Ryou, who had been transparent while Joey and Tristan had picked his other up and took him into the living room so they wouldn't disturb him later, felt his yami's discomfort. But it wasn't at being picked up.

/Mou hitori no boku?/ he called down the link, only to find it blocked. But it wasn't just Bakura blocking him. /What's going on, Bakura?/

---====----====----===-----====----====----===--

It was dark.

So dark.

Where was the light?

He was answered by a gentle brightness that came from no one place. It was a room, but the walls were made of stone. What annoyed him now was that it was empty. But...Why? Why would that annoy him? Where was he anyway? What was he looking for?

He walked out to the center of the room and was met with a blinding light as the floor disappeared and he fell down, down into the light.

---====----====----===--

Danny shot up in his bed as the events in the dream replayed in his mind. A soft light caught his eye as he looked around his room, half expecting to still be in his dream.

He rubbed his eyes a moment before getting up to check out the source of the light. It was his deck, glowing with feeling, as it had done everytime he had a nightmare over the last year and a half. He never knew why the cards reacted to his feelings; he just knew that they did.

He lifted the deck in his hands and shuffled the cards. That always seemed to help him after a nightmare. He drew the top card and watched as the glow emanating from Neo the Magic Swordsman faded with the memory of the dream.

Then his ghost sense went off as Skulker floated by his window, purposefully pausing by and waving before speeding off towards the town center.

Danny sighed as he dressed before going ghost, just knowing that he would be out all night. Sometimes it wasn't worth it to be half ghost.

---====----====----===-- ---====----====----===--

Ryou waited in his soulroom while Bakura slept. He'd taken a nap for a little while, but he just wasn't tired. Yugi was probably wondering why Ryou hadn't taken over.

Eventually Ryou got worried as the feelings he was getting from his other increased and turned into _fear_. Bakura was never afraid. Of anything.

Ryou ran out of his room and knocked on Bakura's door. He didn't hear anything coming from behind it, but the emotions were telling him that Bakura should be yelling for someone to wake him up.

"Bakura?" he called through the door. "Are you alright?" the feeling of fear was all that answered him. Ryou drew a deep breath and opened the door.

And for once, he was greeted with the furniture instead of the Shadows. Or Bakura.

Ryou noticed the lack of his other, but actually being in Bakura's room was shocking. He walked over to the bed, which was closest to the door. He brushed his hand on the fabric, marveling at how soft the sheets were. He looked at the dresser that was made of dark ebony and had a couple drawers open. Ryou shook his head at his other's carelessness and closed the drawers.

Once he was done with that, there was nothing else to do but wait for Bakura to find his way back. He sat on the bed and just looked from his viewpoint. There were daggers lying on the nightstand nearby and a couple swords hanging for decoration.

Waiting reminded him of the last time Bakura had been sent to the Shadow Realm. They'd just started to get along when Battle City had started up, and Bakura had seen it as an opportunity to get more Items. They still had the Eye lying around the house somewhere.

Ryou laid back, suddenly sleepy as he tried to shake off those thoughts. Bakura wasn't in the Shadow Realm. He was asleep. Probably he was in this room and Ryou couldn't find him because he didn't want to be found.

That didn't stop the memory from playing, though.

---====----====----===-----====----====----===--

_The Shadows swirled around him as Ryou walked forward, not knowing where he was going. Eventually he sat down, hoping that he wasn't anywhere near the monsters that inhabited this world, and knowing that Bakura would come get him when he got around to it._

_He remembered the Duel his other half had been in, the Shadow Game that he had against Yami Marik. Marik had been really annoying, even to Ryou. Ryou had been content to stay in his soulroom and give support from the sidelines and advice when Bakura needed it. Even if he received insults as 'thank you's. But, Marik was sharing the body and as consequence, could hear whatever conversation he had with his yami. _

_And Bakura had a reputation to keep up. So he couldn't be nice to him. Ryou was used to it though. Marik probably thought he was glutton for punishment or something since he stayed around Bakura. _

_During that Duel, Ryou had wanted to take brief control and tell Marik exactly what was on his mind, but that wouldn't have been nice._

_So Bakura said it instead._

_Still, it made Ryou feel better. Sad, but true._

_Ryou looked around as he heard footsteps reverberate and wondered if he should run. He was just about to, but saw that it was Bakura. The spirit had smiled._

"_Having fun?"_

---====----====----===-----====----====----===--

Ryou remembered just how much Bakura used to scare him before that. It hardly made sense to him now, but Bakura had been a lot scarier when they'd met. Of course, he hadn't learned about Bakura until just before he moved to Domino. That was...what? A year ago? A year and a half? He couldn't remember exactly.

Ryou's eyes started to close as he sank into sleep...

Until a foreboding feeling came over him and he stood up, expecting Dark Necrofear to be there.

Only it wasn't.

The Change of Heart woman stood there, holding Bakura in her delicate looking arms.

"What happened?" he questioned as she laid his yami on his bed. She put her finger to her lips and looked...motherly at Bakura. That was exactly the word Ryou put to the stare. It was like how a mother would look at her sleeping baby.

She nodded to Ryou, placing one of her hands on his shoulder, warming it up slightly before walking out the door that he'd left open in case he'd need to leave and disappearing from sight.

Ryou looked at Bakura, who looked worse for wear. Change of Heart was a gentle soul. That much he knew from past experiences with her. She'd saved him from some pretty deadly creatures the last time Bakura had sent him to the Shadow Realm. And she'd fed him.

So why would she set off his alarms? Did she mess with Bakura? Would he be evil again?

Ryou hoped not as he pulled his yami's shoes off and tucked him into his bed.

Completely on accident, Ryou fell asleep next to him, mentally worn out from all the thinking he'd done and emotionally worn out from all the worrying.

---====----====----===-----====----====----===--

When Bakura woke up, his body acted on its own, sliding closer to the warmth beside it. Until that warmth shivered, that is. Bakura rolled over to see who it was.

Ryou's unconscious form shifted uncomfortably under Bakura's stare.

"Hikari," Bakura whispered, trying to be gentle in waking him up. Ryou pushed Bakura's hands away as he mumbled something incoherent.

The boy shivered again and curled up, trying to retain his own body heat. Bakura sighed as he noticed his host's problem. The Shadows were flowing around his bed.

As many times as Ryou'd been in the Shadow Realm, it still affected him worse that it ever would Yugi. He couldn't stay in the Shadow Realm for long, hence why he'd been sent so many times before. The yami ordered the Shadows back far enough that they weren't freezing Ryou to death, but he was too lazy to carry him to his Shadow-free room.

Bakura pulled the blanket out from under Ryou and draped it over him before pulling the boy close enough so that he wouldn't be so cold in case the Shadows crawled back into place.

A warmth in his chest flared up and seemed to spread throughout his body. Bakura had no idea what it was, but Ryou could probably feel it, since he'd stopped shivering.

Some part of Bakura's brain said that this was wrong.

Another said that it was fine.

Bakura didn't know which one to listen to.

---====----====----===-----====----====----===--

Yugi looked into the living room where Ryou's body was sleeping, draped on the couch.

He'd half hoped that Ryou would wake up and say hi, but he hadn't. Yami was throwing out random guesses as to why that might be, all ranging from Ryou dead to just asleep. Yugi was glad that Yami had guessed the sleep one, because he didn't really like the other choices. Plus, that one felt like it was the closest to the truth to Yugi.

"I don't think he's going to be waking up anytime soon, Yugi," Tristan's voice called, jostling Yugi from his thoughts. The boy sighed. Tristan was right. It had only been a few hours...

Ryou turned over, the first movement in a long while. Yugi wasn't the only one to notice it. A very large black spider was waiting in Joey's closet, watching Ryou while the boy slept.

---====----====----===-----====----====----===--

Ryou woke up feeling pretty warm. Which was strange since he thought it had been cold. He opened his eyes, but it took a moment for him to remember where he was.

Then it hit him.

Bakura's room.

He looked beside him and saw his yami snoring softly there, facing away from him. Ryou sighed in relief. Bakura hadn't changed back.

If he had, Ryou would probably be in the Shadow Realm right then instead of under the covers in a nice warm bed. Well, almost warm.

Ryou shivered as a stream of Shadows floated over the bed. The whitenette resolved to taking control of the body while Bakura slept. Ryou could take the pain, if his ribs were still bruised.

He slid out of the bed and noticed the Shadows parting a path to the door. He walked down that path and shivered once before exiting the room. He closed the door behind him gently so that he didn't disturb Bakura. He glanced into his own room before walking toward the place he could take over from.

He thought about what his yami would say once he woke up. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be pretty.

---====----====----===--

The eyes opened; blank since it hadn't had anyone to control it until Ryou's warm brown filled the void. He blinked, making sure he had complete control. Of course, with control came pain.

The boy curled up around his torso as he fought back the pain. It seemed to last for an hour before it started to lessen. He was vaguely aware of hands massaging his side.

"It's okay, Bakura," Tea's voice came. It was...soothing. Ryou's ribs numbed under her hands. He relaxed before the feeling of weightlessness overcame him for a moment. When he felt something beneath him, he opened his eyes again.

Tea was leaning over him, or at least that was what it looked like to Ryou at first. Then he realized that he was in her lap.

He tried to squirm his way out of her grasp, but he was held down by three pairs of hands.

"Relax, 'Kura!" Joey said, helping Tristan and Tea hold him down. Tea took her hands off the whitenette and gently massaged his chest.

"Does it still hurt?" she asked as the boys stopped holding him down.

"Iie, it's fine," he answered before Tea helped him sit next to her. His arms were resting on his lap as he leaned forward.

"Ryou," Yugi started, "why did it take so long for you to take control?" Yugi was curious. Too curious for his own good.

"Bakura wouldn't let me," Ryou answered, giving as much of the truth as he saw fit to give. He didn't want to say that Bakura was sleeping, who knows what people would say then.

Yugi gave an 'Oh' and let the subject drop. Though there was an air of amusement around him. Ryou blinked at him.

"So, Yugi. How's the Pharaoh today?" Tea asked as the other boys sat down around the living room.

"Ano... He's fine. A little upset, but he's fine," Yugi shrugged. He himself seemed a little upset at the topic, but Ryou guessed that he didn't like it that his other wasn't happy. Maybe their emotions bled into each other.

Ryou didn't envy their closeness.

"Why's he upset?" Tristan asked, cocking his head in confusion. Yami was never anything but confident. Him being upset was...unsettling.

"Over the whole Unknown thing," Yugi shrugged. It was Ryou's turn to 'Oh' this time. Joey nodded.

"Yeah, those guy's are really something to worry over," he agreed. "I wonder what they want..."

Everyone (who had listened to Bakura) knew what—who—they wanted. No one knew why though. Not even Bakura had mentioned why they did what they did. No one talked for a moment.

Tristan and Joey thought for a moment before disappearing into the den.

"What're they doing?" Ryou asked as Tea stood up to see. Even Yugi had no idea what was going on.

"Joey?" Tea called before entering the den. Yugi stood up to follow, hesitating when he remembered that Ryou would be alone. Nothing would happen to him, Yugi believed as he left the room.

He was gone for about five minutes before Ryou was so bored that he wanted to get up and see where everyone was.

Ryou noticed it when the closet door creaked. What he didn't notice was the hugest spider ever running under the chair closest to it. He didn't notice it as it sped across the room, going beneath the chairs and the tables. He didn't even notice it when it was lying in wait right in front of him.

The whitenette stood up, but the sudden movement was the trigger to the spider's bomb.

Ryou yelled out as the large black glob flew at him, determined to take something off of the boy. He felt a surge of power run through and out of him before anyone could respond to his yell.

//Baka!// Bakura said as the power created a shield around Ryou. //I said you couldn't take over yet! What part of that didn't you understand?// The spider hit the wall and bounced off. It then walked around him, hissing in displeasure at the loss of its meal.

/I'm sorry Bakura! I-I didn't know this would happen!/ Ryou sent back as he stood as still as he could. He was afraid to move in case there were other spiders waiting for him.

Joey and the others ran into the room, but were shocked when they saw the spider. They all silently agreed that the spider couldn't even hide in something like Yugi's hair. Joey disappeared back into his den for a moment as the spider tried to attack the force field and ended up trapped in a ball of Shadow Magic. It floated there while it hissed at the whitenette. Ryou gulped.

When Joey came back he was holding a box of matches and a can of aerosol. He shook the can and picked up a match. He looked at Ryou.

"Wanna let the monsta go?"

"You're going to...kill it?"

//I say let him//

/Bakura! You know I don't like that stuff/

//This is something that'll have to be done// Bakura said as the spider was lifted nearly to the ceiling as Joey lit the match and readied the can. The Shadow Ball disappeared and the spider came tumbling down—Ryou ducked and covered his eyes so that he wouldn't have to see—straight into a stream of fire, burning its over-large hairy body to a crisp.

Ryou kept his eyes covered, flinching at every scream the spider made until it died. Tea came over and led the bruised boy into the den while Bakura told him off. Joey put his spider-killer kit away and grabbed a bottle of water for Ryou to drink.

"Here, you probably need this," he said, giving the bottle to Ryou who accepted it gratefully. Ryou winced as Bakura said something not-very-nice to him. Yugi noticed and in a flash of bright light, the short thirteen-year-old was a little taller with crimson eyes and streaks of yellow in his hair. Ryou sighed and took a gulp of water so that his throat wasn't so dry.

"Bakura," Yami started. "What is going on?" Joey looked at the Pharaoh like something was wrong with him.

Ryou took another gulp of water. "Like we were telling you before, Pharaoh, we have no idea." Maybe a little too Bakura-ish, but it was what Ryou came up with while Bakura was still chewing him out, though now it had strayed from random insults to...safety concerns. It surprised him that Bakura was worried more about him than the body, but he didn't give that surprise a voice. He didn't want Bakura to have to say that he really meant something else.

"That's not a real answer. Where's your other? He must know something about this," Yami replied as Bakura stopped ranting. He didn't want to talk to the Pharaoh.

"Must we talk about this now?" Ryou asked making sure he was steady enough to sit down on his own. Yami sat at the other seat across the table as Joey sat on the floor and Tea pulled up another chair next to Ryou and Tristan sat next to Yami.

"When should we talk about this? When these creatures attack other people?"

"T-That's not what I—"

"Then what did you mean?"

"Yami!" Joey called as Ryou seemed to be in over his head. "Ryou's had a hard day already! This can wait," he said as Yami's mouth pursed. If this was what he had to deal with while he had been Pharaoh, he was glad he wasn't still Pharaoh. He didn't like it when people kept things from him. Liked it even less when they were the ones targeted.

"Very well," Yami said as Yugi resumed control.

"I'm sorry about him, he just won't listen to me," Yugi apologized. Ryou smiled.

"You don't have to be sorry, he's just doing what he thinks is right."

"I know, he's just overdoing it," then the boy's eyes lit up. "Oh, and the Pharaoh told me about your other's idea." Ryou thought he would say that he didn't want to go. "I want to go too."

To say that Ryou was surprised was an understatement. Even Bakura was speechless for a moment.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it sounds like fun." A phone rang, the sound came from the kitchen and Joey went to answer it.

Yugi and Ryou talked about it until Joey came back from his phone call with Tristan and Tea said their pieces.

"Yugue, Gramps needs you at the Game Shop. I think he's gettin' a few more costumers than usual," Joey said, walking in. Yugi nodded and went to the door.

"See you guys tomorrow!" he called before leaving. The children left behind called their goodbyes and started talking about what they could do next. Luckily for Ryou, he did not become Tea's hostage again.

---====----====----===--

It wasn't long before Tristan had to go home and Bakura made his appearance to help his hikari out. He had been more than a little miffed that they'd left Ryou alone, but he never mentioned it because they'd already apologized. And saved the boy's life. Joey went to vacuum up the ashes, but he wasn't going to let his guests sleep somewhere that they would get hurt in.

It was soon fixed as Ryou and Bakura agreed to stay in Joey's room so that they wouldn't be alone. Joey's room was only big enough for two mattresses including his, but it was okay by the whitenettes.

Once Joey had done a good once over of his room so that he knew that there were no spiders at all in his room, he was happy.

It was getting pretty late, but not late enough for Tea to have to go home yet.

"So, Joey," the brunette said, "why did you and Tristan go back into the den anyway?" Joey blinked, not understanding.

"We...went into...the den? When'd we do that?" he asked back.

"Right before the spider tried to kill me, remember?"

"No...I don't remember. I remember being in the livin' room, and then I draw a blank til Bakura yelled, and then bada-bing I get the bug spray and killed the little monsta," Joey answered, scratching his cheek.

"That doesn't make any sense," Bakura muttered. "You remember what was going on when Marik was controlling you but you don't remember why you walked into a room of your own house?"

"You call that thing 'little'?" Joey grinned sheepishly at Ryou's comment.

"You know...That happened to me today too. When I squeezed you too hard. I don't remember it," Tea put in, tapping her cheek.

"Maybe we should see if Tristan remembers it. Then we could see if it was just coincidence or if something is going on," Bakura said, taking everything in.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if Tristan was just following you, then the spider was just a coincidence that happened to be there when you had your mindblank. It could also mean that someone was targeting you with some weird form of control as well, but that would be less likely than anything else," the spirit muttered.

"And if he doesn't?"

"Then there is definitely something going on. Two people not remembering an event is near unheard of if there is no obvious explanation." The mortals of the group had to agree with that.

---====----====----===--

After a little while, Tea's mom called and she had to go home for dinner, which reminded the boys that they were hungry. Joey didn't feel like having pizza so he went to see what he had in his kitchen.

"Let's see... I got mac n cheese, uhhh, rice, hmm, that looks good, chicken, what do y'all want?" Joey asked, finally sticking his head out of the kitchen. Ryou gave a light laugh as Bakura smirked.

"Maybe we should let Ryou cook in case you make something as crispy as that spider," he answered, his smirk a lot lighter than Joey had ever seen it. The blond conceded with a smile.

Ryou took the initiative and made the chicken and the macaroni. Joey was impressed at it, knowing that he would never be able to cook like that.

---====----====----===-----====----====----===--

"The fools have no idea what I'm planning," a cold voice rang out in the darkness. The voice laughed as a video was showing on a wall.

It was of Joey's bedroom, where the boys were turning in for the night. His 'video camera' was a nicely sized spider peering in through the window.

"They may have taken one of my pets, but they will never take them all. Right, my precious?" A purr answered him as he stroked the head of a dog-sized spider. The man turned back to the screen. The image focused on Ryou, allowing the shadow to see every feature on the boy's sleeping face. "Just you wait, Bakura. I will have my revenge on you yet."

The man's maniacal laughter resonated throughout the chamber he was enclosed in.

---====----====----===-----====----====----===-----====----====----===-----====----====----===--

OOOOooooOOOOooooOOOOoooohhhh!! Creepyville...

Bakura: You're having fun with this, aren't you.

Why wouldn't I? All that'll happen to me is death by angry spiders.

Ryou: Didn't one try to attack you?

Yeah, but I killed it before it could report back to the bad guy.

Ryou: Nani!? You did what?!?!!

Bakura: Cut it out, hikari. Yelling won't do any good.

Ryou: That's not the point...

How'd you get away from all those girls, Ryou? They seemed as bad as the Unknown.

Ryou: Uhh... *looks at crowd* I think they found Riku... Maybe they like guys with silver hair...

*holding Riku plushie* Wait for me!!!! I wanna hug him tooooooooooo!

Bakura and Ryou: *Sweatdrop*

Ryou: Review please, and maybe she'll co0me back and write the next chapter.

Riku: HEEEEELLLLLPPPPP MEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Bakura and Ryou: *Sweatdrop*


	11. Things That Happen Randomly

This was a pretty hard chapter to write, so sorry that it's a little shorter than some people might want it...

Bakura:*totally ignoring the authoress and is reading one of the reviews* I am _not_ fluffy...

Marik: *tries to hold back laughter* Sh-Shut up Fluffy! *Fails miserably and ends up on the floor holding his side*

Bakura: That's it, no more Abridged Series for you!

Marik: *Stops laughing* What!? NOOOOOOO!!!

Ryou: *smiles, trying to keep in own laughter* it's not his fault that Little Kuriboh is awesome.

Bakura: You know he jokes you too, right?

Ryou: You're the one that uses the 'Gaydar' *fails at keeping in laughter and both he and Marik laugh uncontrollably*

Bakura: *eye twitches*

----====----====----====------====----====----====------====----====----====--

Chapter 11: Things that happen at random

Danny tapped the pencil on his desk as he glared at the homework Lancer had given him for extra credit. Just because he had asked for it didn't mean that he really wanted it.

But really, he did. He wanted a vacation. Sam and Tucker could use one too, considering all the work they were doing had to frying their brains. All they could talk about was what ghost attacked where, and when Danny was a second late to fight one, he was chewed out royally.

Danny sighed as he turned to his computer for some information for his homework. It was Saturday, a day that normally he'd be getting ready for the movie theater or fighting some non-descript ghost over something as simple as frightening a group of kids or stealing something that was never theirs in the first place.

A few clicks here, and scribble with the pencil there, almost done—

"Beware!"

Danny groaned and grabbed his thermos as Sam walked into his room.

"The Box Ghost is here!" she moaned, waving her arms dramatically. Danny didn't even try to smile at that. "Oh, come on. You know that it's funny," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Not by a mile," Danny contradicted. He crossed his arms. He just needed to finish this paper and he'd have a C in English. When Sam didn't say anything else he turned back to his work.

"What're you working on?" Danny seethed in silence as he made the right words appear on paper. He was very glad that looks didn't kill. He'd have to rewrite the whole thing if they could.

"Extra credit," he answered, checking over the essay so that he could make sure he didn't have any spelling mistakes or other errors Lancer was fond of giving a bad grade for. Sam blinked.

"Why?" Geez, why didn't she keep her nose outta other people's business? He was trying to pass the grade!

"So I can pass," he answered, fixing an error and focusing on keeping the dislike out of his voice.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Why the sudden interest in passing?"

"Because I want to."

"That's not a reason." Danny winced as he typed up his paper and checked his assignment. He didn't want to tell her that he wanted a break from his 'job'. All he needed was a couple days to himself...

"I don't want to repeat, Sam," he answered easily. It wasn't a complete lie, it was just a half truth.

"And you won't. Tucker can change your grades from his PDA."

"That's cheating. And I thought you were against that?" he answered, remembering with a cringe the last time he had cheated. Everyone he loved nearly were all killed. So why would Sam say that? She of all people knew the consequences of a simple action.

"I am, but if you're that worried, then I will overlook it."

"No! I won't cheat, Sam. I can do it on my own." With that, Danny printed out his paper and started on his Math work.

"It was just a suggestion," she said, making Danny regret his outburst.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, hoping Sam could hear him. Behind him, Sam nodded.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." Sam's sad mood evaporated quickly. She sat on his bed as he worked. She leaned forward. "Hey, how about we go catch a movie? There's a new one that I've been meaning to see."

"What's it about?"

"Oh, you know. Zombies rising from the grave, intent on eating some pretty girls' brains," she answered. Danny snorted. More undead mayhem. Oh well, at least it didn't involve ghosts. He nodded as he checked the calculator on his computer. He was very proud of himself for all the work he was doing. It was harder than fighting the ghosts, but hey. He was finishing it.

An hour passed before he was finished with everything. He shoved his work into his backpack before he and Sam walked out to go to the movie theater.

----====----====----====------====----====----====--

_Mirrors acted as walls, but they weren't reflecting anything. He knew that because he was standing right in front of one. He put his hand on it, and it shattered at his touch._

_But that wasn't what made him run._

_It was what was behind it._

"Hikari!"

_He ran away from the spider as each and every mirror shattered in turn, revealing the monsters and monster-sized spiders waiting behind them._

"_Bakura..."_

_He ran until he couldn't run anymore. He risked a glance behind him and was relieved that he couldn't see them. Then he tensed up as he realized that he couldn't have been running long enough to lose sight of them. Some of those monsters were as big as Slifer! Maybe bigger..._

"Hikari! Wake up!"

"_Bakura... I'm scared..."_

_He sat against a non-existent wall before taking in his surroundings. If Bakura knew that he didn't look at it first, he would have been in big trouble._

_Two doors stood side-by-side, but the weren't connected to anything. Not even the floor. _

_They drifted closer to each other and before they could bump against each other, they drifted in the other way. _

_One was a neonish green with black swirling around it. There seemed to be moans of some sort coming from behind it._

_The other was black with gray swirls. He could almost hear a conversation of sorts on the other side. He stood up and walked over to the black one._

"_I see you have found the paths," a gentle voice answered the boy's unasked question. He turned around and saw Change of Heart. She was smiling. "But you have already chosen yours."_

"_Then whose—"_

"_That is not for me to say."_

"Ryou!" _ Change of Heart looked up, as did Ryou. There was nothing but white._

"_Sounds as if someone is missed." She smiled at the whitenette. She held out her delicate hand. "Come, my son. I will lead you back to your Darkness."_

----====----====----====--

Ryou opened his eyes to see Bakura leaning over him.

"What is it?" he asked sleepily as he sought out a clock to tell him what time it was. It was three in the morning.

"You were having a nightmare," Bakura said irritably. Irritably but quietly.

"I woke you up? I'm sorry."

"Eh, Daijoubou. Don't worry about it. What was it about?" the spirit asked as he yawned. Ryou blinked.

"You didn't see it?"

"No, I was being blocked," he said as he lay back down. "And I doubt you were the one that did it."

Ryou was quiet. What was it about Change of Heart that kept separating them?

"This can wait for the morning, I guess," Bakura gave in, seeing Ryou's internal struggle.

"I'm sorry. It was about Change of Heart, not much to really say."

Bakura wasn't fooled. She could be scary, sure. But not scary enough for Ryou to whimper the word "spider" the way he had. He knew that there was more to it.

"I've been having dreams about her too. Which should be impossible considering the fact that... I think I'm dead," Bakura smirked and it made Ryou laugh a little.

"At least I'm not the only one," he answered, lying back down to get comfortable.

"What? That's dead? Ryou, I never knew!" Bakura feinted distress at this making Ryou laugh a little harder, so he had to cover his mouth to keep from waking Joey up, which really wouldn't have mattered. He did sleep through Duelist Kingdom when the baka Bandit Keith stole one of his cards. Bakura yawned again. Despite being dead, he did like his sleep. "Now we go back to sleep." And with that, he was out like a light.

Ryou shook his head at the ability. He was going to have to ask how he fell asleep so quickly. He turned over and fell asleep about five minutes later.

----====----====----====--

Ryou was roughly woken up about four hours later. He thought it was his yami again, but the thought was dismissed when he heard said person say some not-so-very-nice words in Ancient Egyptian.

"Wakey-wakey guys!" Ryou almost groaned at Tea's voice. But he didn't. Bakura did.

Ryou lifted himself up and managed to sit on his legs. Bakura was being stubborn and had pulled the blanket over his head.

"Where's the fire?" a groggy Joey muttered, somehow having woken up. Ryou thought that the reason why was because of Tea holding a bucket and the blonde's hair being drenched.

"It's Sunday!" she called as if that answered everything. Bakura peeked out from under his blanket.

"And?" the elder whitenette said, holding up his head with his hand. He was obviously miffed at being woken up. No one who valued their life had ever woken him up before. But he didn't mind it today because he wasn't in his house. Now if they ever did this while he was at home...

Ryou crossed his arms at the thought to keep from shuddering.

"All the stores are having their best sales today!" and with that, the girl left the room, knowing that she had gotten all three up.

"You're the one in control!" Bakura stated happily before disappearing. Ryou hung his head. This was turning into a really long day he realized as he felt Bakura fall asleep in his own soulroom.

"Sucks to be us, huh?" Joey muttered as Ryou got up and reached for some clothes to put for the day.

"Always, apparently," Ryou answered. The whitenette picked out a nice black shirt and dark blue jeans. He went to the bathroom to change.

----====----====----====--

"Oh, stop moaning!" Tea ordered sharply, making even Bakura wince at the tone. They had been shopping all day, with Bakura popping in every now and then for a little...purchasing of his own. So far he'd gotten a new knife, one that wouldn't be missed, a pretty sapphire gem that he'd noticed Ryou looking at, and a new addition to Ryou's belt. Not to mention several wallets were now missing whatever cash they had held before being returned by a very helpful Ryou, who by the way wasn't Ryou. Some mortals could be so dense.

That included Tea and Joey. They never noticed that Ryou's pockets were heavier. They kept talking about whatever as Bakura kept a lookout for trouble. And cops. They could be so annoying.

Bakura spotted a very shiny something that seemed to be begging to be picked up. He averted his attention away from the shiny object and tried thinking about something else. Like Change of Heart. Yeah, she was a very important topic right now.

"Hey, what's that?" Tea asked, looking straight at the shiny thing lying in the middle of the street.

"Someone's wallet. 'Kura? Do you know whose this is?"

Bakura stepped up to it and noticed tthat the shiny object was just a wallet, with a shiny leather-like covering. He was unsure of what to make of this. Still felt like trick.

"Umm, no. I don't." //This might be bad//

/When isn't it?/

//That's beside the point//

Joey sighed as Bakura picked up the wallet, turning it over carefully in his hands as if one touch was enough to turn it into sand. He quickly took into account the surface. Before opening the strange money-holder. One glance at the ID told him who to look for, which meant that he'd have to really look. Bakura held it a little closer as he looked around for anyone that could have dropped it.

He saw the owner standing outside a store, patting his pockets.

"Sir," Bakura started with his best Ryou voice, "I do believe you dropped this." The man glared at him, but, Bakura being used to them, did not even acknowledge it.

"What did you take out of it?!"

Bakura looked taken aback. The one time he doesn't steal from somebody, he is actually accused!

"Nothing! Honest! Check if you like!" Bakura said, still using Ryou's voice and waving his hands in surrender.

The man looked. Then he looked back at Bakura, who was inching away from the temperamental man.

"I'm missing the money." That was all he said. Then he grabbed Bakura by the front of his shirt, glaring directly at the boy.

"I didn't take it." The man seemed taken by surprise by how calm the boy was while in such a situation. But he didn't let that stop him. He threw Bakura against the wall behind him. Joey and Tea, who'd run after him as soon as the man proved violent, grabbed the man's shoulders in an attempt to get him off of their friend.

Unfortunately, the man was strong enough to throw them both off. He brought his ugly mug closer to Bakura's pretty face.

"I'll ask again," he said menacingly, but the effect was lost on the spirit, who merely wrinkled his nose at the man's breath. "Where is my money?"

Bakura, ever the smart one, pushed the man's face back. "Two words pal: Breath. Mints." He made sure to pause while saying this. He held back a smirk at the man's obvious irritation. A vein seemed to pulse in his forehead.

He banged Bakura against the wall again as Joey and Tea tried in vain to pry the man away.

The man's hands found their way to Bakura's throat, successfully blocking Bakura from breathing. Bakura lifted his hands to the man's, trying to lift the offending appendages just enough to breathe.

"Don't make me—"

"Make you what? Rob me again?" he tightened his grip, easily sliding through Bakura's hands. Joey hit the man, giving a pretty good right hook at the back of the head, but he either didn't feel the punch or he didn't care.

"I warned you." A flash of the Ring and the man fell at the spirit's feet, the wallet now holding an eerie glow. Joey looked at his fist as if that was what caused this.

"Relax, I locked his soul into his wallet." He picked up said wallet and shifted through the contents. "He had his money. What a fool." He dropped the wallet on the man. "Nothing worth stealing," he muttered, allowing the Ring to flash and walking away before the man could wake up.

"You let him out?" Tea asked hesitantly. She didn't like that Bakura could imprison people whenever he felt like it, but she was pretty sure that having that guy walking around hurting helpful people was worse.

Bakura shrugged.

"The Pharaoh would tell me to release the bastard anyway, so I figured I'd get one lecture out of the way." He glanced back at where the man was getting up, looking for Bakura, probably. He seemed to get mad and stomped off.

"We'd better be getting back anyways. The stores are all about to close," Tea said as she looked back as well. Bakura nodded at her wisdom. They made it back at Joey's after Bakura had taken it upon himself to carry some of the blonde's load.

"Why'd he get so evil?" Tea asked once everyone was at Joey's and Ryou had made himself a temporary body.

"I dunno, maybe he was stolen from before?" Joey threw in, shrugging.

"That still doesn't excuse what he did," Bakura answered, crossing his arms. Ryou sighed.

"Bakura..." Bakura turned away from his light, making him sigh again. The boy leaned forward with his head in his hands. Then he put his hands on his knees. "Well, it's over now."

"True." Tea looked at clock. It was six. "We have school tomorrow, you know."

"What?" Joey yelled before frantically running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to find all his homework.

"My work is at home, so I probably should go," Ryou said. He and Bakura stood up as Tea and Joey looked at them.

"Are you going to be alright?" Bakura looked at her. And then gave her his best not-evil smirk.

"As long as I'm around, nothin' will ever happen to him again!" he promised as Tea and Joey visibly relaxed. They nodded at the two before Bakura grabbed their bag and Ryou disappeared into the Ring.

No one remembered a time when that fact had scared them.

Bakura was inwardly grateful about their trust. And he knew he could trust them if something went wrong.

----====----====----====------====----====----====--

The next month passed by with only a couple of odd looks thrown Ryou's way by Yugi and Tristan and mmore than a couple weekends spent at Joey's. He'd even got to really talk to Serenity a little more (under Joey's supervision, of course).

But the most important thing was that Halloween was only a couple weeks away. It had both hikari and yami more excited than usual, which meant that Ryou woke up with stolen items more often.

There was a Halloween party at the school on the 31st and Ryou was going to go as Change of Heart. He had asked the others what they were going to be, but they weren't talking.

And the really strange part was that Bakura was helping him make the costume.

Not that Ryou was complaining. It was a really big help since Ryou hadn't so much as tried to see it as anything other than a date on the calendar since his mother and sister had died. He hadn't even celebrated it that year.

This was the first year since he was eight that he would celebrate it. And he was really excited.

He wondered idly if Yugi like Halloween this much. He was probably going to go as Pharaoh or something. Yami might talk him into it.

Ryou mused the different things that Yugi and his little gang could go as as he sewed the robe together. Bakura was trying to keep his laughter down as Ryou thought about Tea going as the Dark Magician Girl while he himself was making the wings.

"You know, we didn't exactly have Halloween," Bakura said as they worked. Ryou looked up at this, as this was the first time that Bakura had willingly said anything about Ancient Egypt.

"What, no candy?" Ryou joked as he pulled the needle through the fabric. Bakura smirked.

"That _might_ have had something to do with it. I would have been one hyper thief if there were any!" Ryou laughed at that so hard that he had had to put down the needle to keep from stabbing himself on accident. He of all people knew how hyper Bakura could get. The two had to calm down before Bakura could continue. "We didn't call it Halloween, or All Hallow's eve, or whatever. We all knew that it was the night that the Shadows were at their strongest, but we didn't think about dressing up to scare people or bribe people for anything. It was a night that even the Pharaoh and most cunning could sit down and enjoy."

"What did you do for Christmas? Exchange bombs wrapped up in giftpaper?" Ryou said, though he did commit the dark's words to memory in case he needed it in the future. Bakura pretended to look offended.

"Of course not!" he smirked and leaned back in his chair. His smirk faded away as he spoke a tad bit more seriously. "It was just a time for people to feel safe, like there was some unwritten rule that not even the Pharaoh himself dared to break about war. You weren't allowed to attack anyone during that holiday, so Egypt had a nice little break from me for a week or two."

"You were just being nice, you know."

"Hmm. I mainly got it from what I remembered of my mother." At this Ryou's ears perked up. "She and all the other women of the village would cook a really big dinner for everyone during that time, so I had the women of my team do the same thing as a kind of 'thank you' for my men," he said before he yawned. He looked at Ryou. "Do you really think I was being nice?"

Ryou nodded. "Yeah. It doesn't hurt to congratulate people for a little while. Keeps them around it you treat them right as far as I can guess."

Bakura suddenly laughed. "How the heck did we go from Halloween to Christmas to how nice I was?"

"I have no idea." Ryou admitted, holding up his hands in surrender. There was a knock at the door and Ryou stood up.

"Who would be making a housecall?" Bakura said as he followed his light out and watched from the doorway separating the den where they had been working from the livingroom.

"No idea, yami," Ryou answered as he looked out the peephole. Bakura saw Ryou look down and wave his hand in a special way to say that it was Yugi and for him to hide. Bakura disappeared into the Ring that was waiting patiently on the table by the robe Ryou was putting together.

"Hey, Ryou," Yugi said as the door opened. Ryou smiled back at the boy.

"Is there something you need?" he asked politely. It wasn't often that Yugi came over.

"I just wanted to see if you were alright. Tea was going to come today, but I said I was going to."

"Well, I'm fine and that's very thoughtful of you, Yugi. How are you and the Pharaoh doing?"

"Well... Yami idn't really talking to me right now," the younger boy answered, putting a hand on the Millennium Puzzle. Ryou realized that that was what the boy had really come over for. Someone to talk to.

"What happened?" Ryou asked as he led the boy into the living room.

"He doesn't want me to go to the camp. But I want to go," he said. Ryou didn't know how to take that. Yami and Yugi on different sides?

"Well, it's your body, I guess," Ryou answered uneasily. "Why doesn't he want you to go?"

Yugi sighed. "He's worried that the Unknown would try to get me while he couldn't protect me."

"That is a valid reason, but I think that he should listen to your reasons. What are they?" Ryou asked.

"Ano... If I went, then I wouldn't be able to be picked on when Joey and Tristan aren't around, and maybe I could hold my own in a Shadow Game if I'm stronger. I don't know which one is more important," he said as Ryou looked at him. He hadn't thought about the Shadow Game part, but now that he was, it did make sense.

"True. If you want, I think that Joey and the others wouldn't mind coming with to keep an eye on us." He heard Bakura snort in the back of his mind as he said this.

//If they're coming, we're going to have to tell Tristan about me so that I can keep a lookout too//

/If he doesn't already know, then we can have Joey tell him/

//Okay, but I doubt he knows// Ryou didn't need Bakura to say why. Yugi was here, so Tristan couldn't possibly know. Yami would have taken control the moment the thought of coming here had entered his head to keep Yugi safe.

"I think the Pharaoh likes that idea, at least, he's opened the link again." Ryou smiled at Yugi's mirth. Even Bakura seemed to be glad that the boy wasn't crying over the Pharaoh. But that had to have been Ryou's imagination. "Thank you, Ryou!" he cried as he hugged the whitenette, leaving the latter to wonder what it was that he did.

"Glad to help," Ryou said. Yugi looked into the den, and like Tea and Joey, he was awed at first. And then he must have seen the mess at the table.

"Oh, Ryou what are you going to be for the party?" he asked as he started into the den. Ryou stopped him with a small smirk on his face.

"Nope, you wouldn't tell me, so I can't tell you," Ryou said, putting a finger to his lips. Yugi looked surprised by the smirk but pouted when what Ryou had said gained meaning in his head.

"Aww. I wanted to know..."

"Have you already done your homework?" Ryou asked, trying to get a conversation going. Unfortunately, he failed at that as Yugi had jumped up with realization as he remembered that he had been too worried about his darkness to think about homework.

"I'm sorry, Ryou! I have to finish it before Grandpa realizes I didn't do it yet!" Yugi apologized before excusing himself from Ryou's house and running down the street to get home. Bakura materialized next to him.

"Did _you_ do your homework?" he asked, crossing his arms as Ryou closed the door.

"Yup! Right after I came home, Bakura," the boy answered as the two made their way back to their project.

----====----====----====------====----====----====--

"Master! Please forgive me!" a servant screamed as he was kicked again by his master, the spider standing next to the throne hissing in its perverted pleasure at watching the old man be beat around, knowing that pretty soon, the servant would become its next meal.

"Pitiful mortal! How dare you?!" the master yelled at his fallen victim. He was angry. He put his foot on the quaking man and forced him to look at him. He bent down, his long black hair slipping over his shoulder as he found himself right in the frightned man's face. He made his voice gentle. "Your task was simple. 'Get me information'. That was it. How did you fail me?"

The servant could only whimper pitifully as he was forced to look into those cold blue eyes.

The master stood up and glanced at his army of spiders. "Dinnertime, my sweets." He called to them before turning to the rest of his quaking minions. He pointed to one at random. "You!" the one he pointed to stiffened. The man smiled. "Get me every word you can about this... "Bakura Ryou". And I want by tomorrow." With that said, the unfortunate servant hastily bowed and all but ran out of the chamber, with the other minions at his heels, wanting nothing more than to get away from their master's anger. The man turned to his pets and watched as they ripped the still screaming man to shreds.

One of the smaller spiders stumbled over to him. It was obvious it had gotten hurt in the fight for the feast. The man took pity on it and bent down to give it attention. He felt something tug at his chest as it purred and felt the Shadow Magic run to its leg and heal it. It purred its thanks before running back to the pile of spiders, finding an open space by crawling atop another to get a bite.

He wondered for a moment if this pride was what parents felt when their children did something great before he turned back to where the men had stumbled away to.

"I had better get that information. I have spent far too much time trying to find you, Bakura. It seems that even five thousand years hasn't been long enough for you to drop your guard more than once," he muttered, eyeing the first spider that had been sent to the Bakura residence and had come back. It had gotten pretty big since then. It could no longer fit inside that Ra awful jar as it had then.

And for that, the master was grateful.

----====----====----====------====----====----====------====----====----====--

Before I go any further, I want to know something...

Bakura: *bored* What do you need to know?

A name for the bad guy! I wanna name him something cool, but have a proper meaning. Where do people get the Ancient Egyptian words that I sometimes see from? I'm looking for something pretty exact...

Ryou: Oh, I'm sure someone can tell us. That way everyone can call him something other than 'that guy' or whatever.

Bakura: Couldn't you just name him something Japanese?

I don't know the word for it in that language either... Maybe I should pay more attention to the Japanese cartoons I watch...

Ryou: Ano... Will you please review? I think Bakura wants a hug.

Bakura: WHAT!? I want no such thing, hikari! How could you tell those people that?

Ryou: *ignores Bakura's rant* Pwease?


	12. Disasterific

Bakura: Can I get candy now?

Ryou: ... No.

Bakura: Why not? It's supposed to be Halloween right?

Ryou: I don't wanna get any more stolen items under my pillow.

Bakura: Big deal...

*sigh* Does anyone wanna give Bakura candy?

Ryou: What?! Traitor!

I have a name for the bad guy! And I'll tell you what it means at the end of the chapter...

Bakura: Really?

Yeah, but it won't be his _real_ name yet…

OK! In this chapter, I'll show some characters from Season Zero, but no Danny (boo), and I guess other than maybe a little murder, swearing, and screaming, this is still T-rated...

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the idiot pulling the strings.

Bad Guy: HEY!

---====----====----====----====---====----====----====----====

Chapter 12: Disasterific

M-Master!" the servant he had given the task to called fearfully. "I-I have found as much as I could," he said, implying forgiveness if what he had wasn't enough for the master.

"Bring it here," the master said lazily. Inwardly, he was pleased with the timing. Any later and his pets would have had another meal. The servant nodded and stepped forward, cringing when a spider hissed at him.

A much more docile spider walked up to the frightened servant, who stopped at the movement.

"Give your findings to her." A smile was behind the words. He really was pleased. The servant held out the folders he was carrying and the spider took them into her mouth. The master took them from the spider and looked at the headings. "Who are the Fentons?"

The servant kneeled down. "They are a family that your target stayed with for a few years, Milord." The master graced his minion with a smile.

"Very well done. I take it that not all of the information on Bakura is true?"

"N-no, Milord. Some of it is hearsay, some students who say whatever they wish posted the information online about the boy being...Schizophrenic, milord." The man hoped beyond hope that he would not be punished.

"He never went to anyone for this?" The master asked, fingering through the 'Bakura, Ryou' file.

"N-no, Milord," the servant flinched as the master stood up and dropped the files on a table nearby. He walked forward as the minion trembled at the thought that he had failed his master.

"It appears that there is a party at his school. Perhaps we should go and say 'hello', don't you think?"

The servant gulped. "Whatever my Lord wishes," he said as the man walked closer. The master laughed.

"Now, now! A man of your caliber deserves a promotion! From now on, how about you call me Khaldun-Sama?" the servant recognized the Japanese honorific.

"Of course Milo—uh, Khaldun-Sama." Khaldun gave another laugh.

"Now, I want you to make my pets a few costumes. After all, it _is_ a costume party." Insane laughter filled the hall as the servant excused himself for the task.

---====----====----====----====

It was the day of the party, and everyone was in a bustle to get ready for it. Ryou already had his costume ready, he just needed to dye half of his hair and use a lot of make-up to make it complete.

He hadn't seen much of Yugi and the others for the last week, so he knew that they were fixing their costumes. Everything was definitely going to plan.

Ryou rushed home at the end of the day since it was Friday and hurriedly opened the door.

"Geez, Hikari! You'd think you were being chased or something!" Bakura laughed as he materialized.

"Very funny, 'Kura. C'mon, we have to get ready!" Ryou exclaimed as he grabbed his other's hand and tugged him into the house. Bakura was too surprised at the contact to do anything about it. He watched as Ryou ran around picking up pieces of his costume before the boy ran into his room to get different clothes on for underneath the robe.

When Ryou came back out of his room, he was fixing the costume. Bakura walked over to help him with it before sitting the whitenette down and grabbing the hair dye. It only took about 20 minutes for the dye to stick to the boy's hair. Bakura was helping with the make-up when someone knocked on the door. Bakura was done with Ryou's face, so he believed that the boy could handle make-up-ing his arm, so he got up and walked to the door, looking out the peephole to see if he wanted to answer the door.

"Hey, Tea," the spirit of the Millennium Ring said, answering the door. Then he gave an appreciative once over on her costume.

"What? This?" she said as she twirled around like a model would to show off the outfit. Ryou stuck his head out of the den to see.

"Wow, Tea. Where'd you come up with that outfit?" the boy asked, seeing her. It was something like the Dark Magician Girl's outfit, but it was more armor and less magician. It was still pink though. But without the strange hat. And it had a white cape, boots, belt, and gloves. The collar was a brighter pink than the rest of the outfit.

Tea giggled at seeing the two boys eye her outfit. Bakura crossed his arms.

"Oh, you'll see." She looked at Ryou and put her finger to her chin. "You know, Bakura, that makes me think of something... But I can't remember what it was..."

The whitenettes looked guilty for a moment before Ryou remembered that he needed to finish putting the make-up on. Bakura offered to help and eventually Ryou was ready for the party. With a good half-hour to spare.

So they talked about who was going to the party.

"Well... I know Kaiba's not going to be there," Tea answered.

"What? A school celebration not cool enough for mister emo?" Bakura asked. Tea smiled at that.

"No, I think he's taking Mokuba trick-or-treating."

"That's nice of him," Ryou said. Bakura blinked at his light.

"What? Nice? Are we talking about the same Kaiba?" Ryou nodded at the boy. Bakura leaned back in his chair. "Well, I can honestly say that I've heard everything now!" He looked at the clock. "Shouldn't you two be going somewhere about now?" he smirked as the two mortals present looked at the clock before nearly running out the door.

When they made it to the school, the party was just getting started. Ryou couldn't see any sign of Yugi or the others, but he knew they had to be here. After all, what was a party without celebrities?

It took about fifteen minutes, a few compliments for both costumes, and a couple jokes about Ryou being a girl in disguise before Tea and Ryou made it into the building. When Ryou saw the guys of Tea's group, he couldn't help but ask:

"Is there a theme that I wasn't aware of?"

Joey was the odd man out, because he was wearing a caveman costume complete with a club and an angry disposition. But that didn't stop him from having fun already. Ryou couldn't see who he was joking with yet, though.

Yugi was wearing a purple-blue-red suit of Knight's armor complete with a cape. His Puzzle was the centerpiece for the outfit, somehow completing it instead of looking like too much. He was nodding at something Tristan the Nobleman said.

Tristan had on a grey-brown suit of armor, but there wasn't anything special about it. It looked pieced together but in a good way. As Ryou neared the group, he saw who Joey was talking to.

Seto Kaiba, in all his white-blue armored glory. He was clearly a Blue-Eyes White Knight. Mokuba was running around on an obvious sugar-high, dressed as a ghost, which Kaiba was desperately trying not to smile at. Joey was obviously telling Kaiba to lighten up and smile for once, which the brunette was stubbornly refusing to do.

Ryou walked over to the Knights of Halloween.

They didn't notice him.

A smirk appeared on his features as Bakura took quick control.

He took a deep breath—

"BOO!" he shouted in their ears before giving up control to laugh in peace at the memory of the looks on their faces. They had all jumped—even Kaiba and Mokuba—with the most comical expressions Ryou ever seen. Neither he nor Tea could contain their laughter at it.

"Bakura!" they all said as they managed to right themselves again. Well, all but Kaiba.

But he's a lost cause when it comes to being social anyways.

"You...the looks... Oh Ra!" Ryou couldn't even form coherent thought between bouts of laughter. The gang looked at each other with the same looks on their faces and ended up laughing as well.

//I like this party already!//

/So do I! Thanks 'Kura/

//Eh, I did it for the laughs. Yugi looks really funny when he's scared. But I never thought I'd get _Kaiba_ of all people to shout in fear!// Oh yes. Halloween was most definately his yami's favorite holiday.

The random laughter died down a few moments later as more people filled the auditorium. Small talk ensued, with more people complimenting Ryou's costume and a few girls giggling around him. A few more people asked if he was a girl, which made his eyebrow twitch and he could feel the same happening to his yami.

//Can I send the people who call you a girl to the Shadow Realm?//

/Yami... the Pharaoh would get mad at you/

//I can say that they were going to hurt you//

/He's not going to believe that even if it were true/

//Ra mumble mumble spoil-sport mumble mumble Pharaoh mumble// Ryou rolled his eyes mentally at his darkness. He knew that when Bakura mumbled he was using some...pretty colorful words but he didn't want Ryou to hear it. Which was a big change from before. If Ryou ever picked up a bad word, he could honestly place the blame on Bakura. Though he would probably get sent to the loony bin for it.

"Hey, Kaiba," Ryou started, seeing that Kaiba would rather be elsewhere.

"Hn?"

"Mokuba drag you?" A small smirk from Ryou. A quick nod from Kaiba.

"He didn't want to drag me around town, so he dragged me here instead." Ryou nodded in understanding and then eyed the CEO's costume.

"Did he make you wear the armor too?" At this Kaiba had to smirk.

"Maybe." Ryou let the subject drop and started talking about how Mokuba was doing and stuff like that. The conversation lasted until Joey came to drag the two away for the dance. Ryou wasn't that into dancing, and Kaiba obviously didn't want to try. But that didn't deter the blonde, who set the two non-dancers up with some weird girls. The one Ryou was stuck with had blue hair pulled up in a pony tail, who was dressed as a princess. Ryou learned quickly what her name was because she often spoke in the third person. It was "Oh, Miho is thirsty" or "Miho likes dancing". That kind of stuff that girls think makes them seem cuter or something. Maybe it was attractive to some guys, but it was actually a little annoying to Ryou. Of course it didn't help that Miho seemed to have a thing for him and kept talking about his "dress".

//Oooh, Hikari. I'm surprised at you//

/What?/

//You don't like her!// Bakura seemed to be on the verge of laughter again at the thought of such an innocent soul not liking someone. Yugi didn't even not like anyone, and he's been the target of a lot of people who didn't like him. Bakura remembered that someone named Ushio had beaten him up and afterwards, Yugi was worried about his health since he had gone crazy. It was interesting hearing about the Pharaoh's misdeeds, since he _obviously_ had more reason to do what Bakura himself had done. The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle had definitely gotten a few tricks up his sleeve, with only Yugi keeping it pulled down.

/...I've never really liked her. She's too... I guess forward would be the word. When I first saw her, she was already asking me if I could go out with her after some beauty contest/

//I remember that. You were blushing a little when she asked you, and Tristan was about to have a heart attack!//

/He was?/

//Yeah, he must've liked her then. He doesn't seem to mind now// In fact, Tristan was dancing with a pretty girl that was wearing a costume so that she looked like Ivy from Batman. She even had the red hair and make-up. She seemed a little nervous, but as long as she didn't notice that people were watching her, she seemed almost fine. It unnerved Ryou though. //I wonder if the Pharaoh got to her too?//

/I'll ask Miho/ Ryou thought, sending a mental shudder.

"Er, Miho?" he was sooo going to regret this.

"Hmm?" She looked up at him with sparkles in her eyes. And they were real, like on a cartoon or something.

"That girl over there," Ryou motioned to the redhead, "is she alright?" Miho pouted a bit at Ryou's observation to the other girl.

"Oh, Miho isn't sure. She won the beauty contest because Miho couldn't get to the final round, but when they tried to give her the trophy, Miho heard that she had poured water all over herself and her pretty dress. Miho doesn't know why, but that's what she did." Ryou's eyebrow twitched at all the third person stuff as she leaned her head onto Ryou's chest, making both Ryou and Bakura want to gag at her forwardness. She sighed. "Miho never wants this dance to end." Bakura did gag at this while Ryou grimaced.

"W-Well, everything has to end r-right?" he said, nervous at the closeness and trying to keep the girl happy, but tell the truth. Miho looked up and pouted again. Ryou winced at this. "Th-that means that you h-have to keep good m-memories alive so that maybe one d-day they'll have a chance of r-repeating," he gulped as Miho wrapped her arms around him.

"Miho thinks so too." Ryou couldn't help but wonder why the Gods hated him so much. Bakura started laughing at Ryou's predicament as the boy started looking around for help. Kaiba was stuck with some girl that had a fangirl crush on him and Joey and Tristan were having too much fun watching the poor unfortunate souls they had willingly given to their captors to try. They did notice that Ryou and Kaiba weren't enjoying themselves, but Mokuba came to his brother's rescue for a bathroom break. The girl had glared at Mokuba—who took no notice—and got one in return from Kaiba for the offense.

Hopefully, the Kaiba brothers would help him out too.

Kaiba walked up to them...

Smirked...

...And walked away.

//For the love of all Ra shines upon!// Ryou turned to his last hope. Who wasn't watching. Yugi was walking to the DJ to request a song, probably.

So why did Yugi have an evil smile on his face? He wouldn't—

"And now for a nice slow dance for the couples here tonight!" the DJ called over the mic.

He did. Yugi looked proud of himself as he accepted an offer to dance. Miho squealed in her glee as she dragged the poor boy to the center of the dance floor.

Then the windows all shattered. Ryou quickly made the move to cover Miho enough that she wouldn't get hurt as the DJ called for everyone to stay calm. Yugi and the others stood up, even Kaiba, who had come back with his brother was on edge. It was clear that he had been told that something was going on around Yugi and friends again. That or...he'd figured it out for himself.

Kaiba helped usher people out of the party as Ryou pushed Miho into the crowd to carry her out of danger. Spiders in differing sizes from the size of a dog to that of a horse scurried in and snapped at the people not leaving fast enough. A bunch of Rare Hunter wannabe's came in through a few of the windows.

Ryou heard Mokuba shout "Hey!" but he ignored it. As long as innocent people got out, it didn't matter if they wanted to go or not.

Soon all that remained on the side of good was Yugi, Joey, Kaiba and Ryou. The group of dark-clothed people closed in around them as Yami—he'd switched when the glass had shattered to make sure Yugi wouldn't be hurt, it had been easy because no one would notice a flash of light amid the chaos—reached for his deck.

A spider came far too close for comfort and managed to snag Ryou's robe. It tore off and Ryou quickly removed what was left of it, revealing a form-fitting outfit of black jeans and a white shirt with the make up on his face, neck, and forearm showing, and backed up a little to rest of the group, who must've had the same idea. Yami was ready to pull a card out as the spiders tried to jump at them all.

"MIRROR FORCE!" the spirit called, but instead of killing all the spiders, it merely pushed them all back and on their backs. Yami growled at the failure. But he didn't put the blame on the card or his abilities. It was the bad guys that rendered the magic only half as effective.

"We're going to have use something other than magic, I suppose," the Pharaoh muttered. Kaiba looked less than happy about Yami using the word 'magic'.

"That's not going to be a problem," Bakura said, taking over from his frightened hikari.

"Tomb Robber—!"

"Not now, Pharaoh!" the thief king snapped before mumbling to himself. "Oh, if only Marik were here, he'd just take over the Cloaks and make them fight..."

"Well, Blondie's not here," Kaiba said, "so we're gonna have to do this ourselves!" Then he looked at Joey. "Though I doubt a _club_ is going to do much damage." Joey looked at the weapon in his hand and then turned his glare at Kaiba before tossing the club and looking around for a more suitable weapon. Kaiba merely drew the sword from his belt.

Bakura inspected it from afar.

"Looks like a good blade, Kaiba. You know how to use it?" Kaiba smirked at the whitenette.

"I wouldn't carry it around if I didn't know how to use it." Bakura took the answer and drew his birthday blade from his belt. Kaiba looked at it. And gave a friendly smirk. "You know how to use that?"

"Naturally." Bakura reached for his own deck with his left hand as his right gripped the dagger. Yami didn't even look his way before he pulled out a couple cards while the spiders were getting back on their feet.

"Dark Magician! Dark Magician Girl!" he summoned as a purple clothed man and his pink-armored apprentice appeared next to him. Joey managed to pick up a piece of wood with a nicely sized slab of glass embedded in it to make for a makeshift weapon. Bakura pulled out a card himself.

"Diabound!" The half-snake monster appeared behind him as the spiders crept closer. Diabound's tail hissed at the unwanted guests. The Magicians seemed to be glaring at the men.

"Now, now," one of the Cloaks said, walking forward, making the team tense up. He stopped right outside the effects of Mirror Force which had been resummoned in case of another attack while they were preparing. "I don't wanna hurt anyone." Kaiba huffed.

"Then why the danger? You could have come without the creepy crawlies." The CEO looked at Joey, who was in complete agreement.

/I think the world is ending/

//Why?//

/Joey and Kaiba _never_ agree/ Bakura blinked.

//Damn, your right//

/'Kura.../

The head Cloak laughed.

"Forgive me; my master requested that we make a...memorable entrance."

"Entrance remembered," Bakura said icily. "Now leave." Kaiba and Joey looked at the whitenette in shock. Those words were worthy of the Ice Prince of Kaiba Corp., but they didn't expect Bakura to say that. The Cloak laughed.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." The head tilted to the side. "Now, you gentlemen are smart right? Hand over the _freak_," the word was emphasized by the Cloak pointing at Bakura. "And we will leave all of you alone." Yami could feel the challenge. And the lie. These people wouldn't leave them alone—not alive, anyways.

"And if we don't?" The leader smirked.

"I'm afraid my master won't like that answer. He's a very persistent man, Child." Yami's mouth twitched at the way the Cloak talked to him. Ra, he was older than him! He should be the one saying 'child', not this poor excuse for a person! The man was silent for a moment, as if to give them time to think. Then he spoke again. "So? What is your answer? If you're as smart as the master believes, I will leave with the boy."

Yami's red eyes blinked and looked at Bakura, who had been quiet since his Kaiba's-line-stealing. Then form seemed to shimmer and fade a little before coming back strong. Faded crimson met violet-russet as the Pharaoh understood.

Bakura wasn't standing next to Kaiba.

Bakura wasn't standing in the safe zone.

Bakura was outside it.

The Shadow-Bakura smirked as he saw the realization before turning back to watch, silently telling Yami to do the same.

"I don't think you're smart," Kaiba retorted, missing the exchange. "If you were, then you wouldn't be here." Kaiba was getting angry, and he could almost hear his Blue-Eyes roar in triumphant fury.

Kaiba didn't even realize that he was calling upon the Shadows. The power was almost tangible.

The Cloak laughed again.

"As you wish." He turned to his men. Or at least he tried to. A knife was pressed to his throat from behind, making him gasp.

"Now," Bakura's angry voice hissed into the Cloak's ear. The hood had been pulled off, revealing a man in his mid-thirties with a full head of brown hair and dark brown eyes. Bakura was in the process of pulling out his hair, though, as he kept the blade trained on the man's jugular. "What was that you were saying, _freak_?" Bakura emphasis on the word was by pulling harder on the man's hair and pressing the blade a little closer on his throat. The man gulped and froze when he felt his Adam's apple roll under the knife.

Yami looked behind the pair. While it bothered him that Bakura was ready to kill the man, what seemed to bother him more was that the men that the Cloak had brought with him weren't coming to his rescue. The spiders, however, seemed content with watching. The men were lying around—Dead or alive, the tri-hair colored spirit couldn't even try to guess. He'd venture dead from what Bakura was doing now.

"Are you going to answer?" Bakura hissed. Kaiba stood stock-still, staring at the whitenette. He'd also noticed the bodies lying behind him. Joey was stiff as well. Sure, they'd _heard_ that Bakura could kill people, and probably had—he was 5000 years old, after all—but they'd never _imagined_ him doing so. It was scary. Even for Kaiba. The CEO was very glad that he'd shoved Mokuba into the stream of people to get him away from this. Especially if it resulted in murder.

The man whimpered against the hold.

/Bakura.../ A rush of fear hit him. Bakura knew why. And he also knew that only a little of the feeling was on purpose. Ryou'd only just learned how to send feelings through the mind-link after all.

//Relax Hikari. I'm not going to kill him// Relief was conscious as Bakura focused on the Ring.

/Shadow Realm?/

//Shadow Realm// then Bakura thought about it. //Or maybe into the knife?//

Ryou sent his groan.

//I mean the one I stole//

/Oh. That's okay then/ Bakura split his concentration between the bland knife at his hip and the Ring as he stole the evil man's soul.

When he dropped the body he looked at the rest of the group that were staring at him.

"What?"

"D-Did you—" Joey couldn't even finish what he was saying. Bakura sighed, knowing what he meant.

"I wanted to—I really did—but Ryou said not to."

"He did?" Yami asked. Bakura nodded. Yami looked disbelieving. "Then what did you do to them?"

"Sent them to the Shadow Realm." Then he remembered the leader. "Except for that last guy."

Joey winced at the thought.

Kaiba looked disturbed.

Yami looked... like Yami. Which wasn't a pleasant sight anyways.

"I trapped him in my knife," he said, pulling out said knife. It had an eerie glow and Joey looked relieved. Kaiba went back to looking indifferent.

Yami still looked like Yami.

Bakura sheathed both knives now that he was done with them.

"Well, if that's it..." Joey shrugged before looping his arm around Bakura's shoulders, much to Yami's protests. "The bugs're gone, so I guess we can leave!" He tugged Bakura out of the building to let Tristan and Tea know that they were alive, leaving Kaiba to walk behind them and Yami to stare out the door as Joey dragged a protesting Bakura out into the crowd.

"When did everyone start hanging out with him?" he muttered. He rubbed his temples as a headache caused from thinking so much appeared. He looked around for confirmation that the spiders were gone. They were.

Vanished into thin air.

----====----====----====----====----====----====----====----====----====----====----====----====

Poor Yami…

Bakura: Poor Yami? What about me? I was accused of murder when I didn't do it!

Ryou: That seems to be happening quite a bit as of late...

Yeah, but now Yami's confused! Confused Yami is not a happy Yami. See, there he is now!

Yami: *sits in corner all emo*

Yugi: Oh no! Yami! I'll go get Tea so she can help! TEA!!!

Umm... should we run?

Bakura: I would advise it.

Ryou: *nods*

Alright—Oh no! She's coming! RUN!!

Ryou: Review and maybe we won't die!

Tea: HEEEEEEYYYYY! Wanna hear the pep-talk I'm gonna give the Pharaoh?!

Ryou, Bakura, and me: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Yami: *still acting emo and not noticing that Tea was coming*

Poor Yami...

Bakura: He's doomed.

Ryou: So sad. *puts a hat to his chest and turns to face Yami's direction* I knew ye well.

Bakura: No you didn't.

Ryou: Figure of speech.

Bakura: Oh.

**Khaldun- Egyptian name for 'immortal', or at least that was what the name website said.**

**Sama- Seems to mean something like master. I don't know if that's true or not.**

**So, all translated and stuff, **

**MASTER IMMORTALMAN!**

…**Or maybe not.**

**I like Khaldun-Sama better...**

**REVIEW!!!**

**And maybe give Yami a hug. He's going to need it...**


	13. Fighting

Wow, uhh, Ryou? Am I seeing this right? Do I really have over fifty reviews?

Ryou: Yeah, I'm surprised too. But this is the longest story you have out...

Bakura: Can we get on with this? You'll just get more reviews later. Then you can celebrate.

But I already ate my ice cream!

Bakura: *Facepalm*

Disclalimer: I don't own Yugioh nor Danny Phantom... Or is the other way around? DP then YGO, or YGO then DP? I'm confusing myself now...

---====----====----====----====

Chapter 13: Fighting

This just _had _to happen on Halloween, didn't it?

What a stupid question.

Of course it did. You just don't get this kind of reception any other day.

Feel his pain everyone.

He was just thrown into a wall again.

"DANNY!" Sam called out. The ghost boy groaned and rubbed his head. He looked up at the Fright Knight.

All he could think about was that he was sooooooo glad that Lancer hadn't made him do another haunted house this year. This would be so much harder to deal with.

And of course Sam and Tucker still felt the need to shout out his name whenever he got hit. Maybe it was the concussion talking, but hearing his name so often was getting annoying.

At least his grades were better. And Mom had said that he could talk to Ryou once he'd gotten home. But at this rate...

Yeah, let's not talk about it.

"Fool, did you forget that I am all powerful on this day?" the ghost asked.

"Was that a rhetorical question?" Danny asked back bored. Sure, he had talked to Ryou this morning, after some party that had to end early—which Ryou wouldn't tell him what was wrong—but talking to him every day meant that soon he'd be told what was going on. Not that he was prying.

That would be hypocritical.

So he was just waiting out the storm until they all thought he could be trusted with this information.

He dodged the sword again as the Knight tried to either decapitate him or send him to that nightmare place.

A well placed blast here... Aim the thermos this way...

_Yes! Fright Knight, happy Halloween! Inside the thermos_, Danny couldn't help but think.

He landed on the ground as he fixed the thermos on his back and fished for his cell phone so that he knew he wasn't late.

_9:45 p.m._ Good.

"I'll see you tomorrow!" he called as he flew away. Sam and Tucker stared after him for a moment before shaking their heads at the behavior. They didn't know what was going on.

And that was how Danny wanted to keep it for a little while.

It didn't take long for Danny to make it home. Five minutes, tops.

His mother was on the phone with someone, so he thought about just calling Ryou on his own phone. But he could wait. It was Saturday for them anyways. And he had sounded tired. He'd probably be sleeping late.

Maddie nodded at Danny once she had seen that he was there and that he was on time.

A knock on the door shook Danny out of his thoughts. And his father from his sewing thing. Or was it the squishy action-figures? They were scary...

"Vladdy!" Danny groaned and Maddie—who heard too—made a face. Sure, Vlad was kinda nice. Even Danny had to admit that. It was just that when he was nice, you were sure to see that that was the calm before the storm. Even Maddie had been on the wrong end of the man's temper.

"Why, Jack! I was wondering if dear Daniel was home? I'd like a word with him, if you don't mind." Cue Jack's idiocy.

"Of course not! Danny!" Hook, line and sinker. Why did Jack have to be so... Jack. Maddie said goodbye to whoever she was talking to and put her hand on the boy's shoulder.

"C'mon, your father's here, so maybe he won't be too much of a jerk," she consoled. Danny sighed, but nodded.

As soon as Vlad saw them, he started to compliment Maddie on her outfit, but start wouldn't be the term for it. He was cut off before any sound could come out of the sly mayor's mouth by several very loud screams that hurt Danny's ears.

Danny ran to the door and looked out.

And froze.

---====----====----====---====----====----====

Thousands of miles away, cold blue eyes narrowed as a strange smirk appeared on hardened features.

"Let the terror begin."

---====----====----====---====----====----====

Spiders the size of cars were rampaging through town. Danny stumbled back as one ripped a citizen apart, eliciting even more screams from on-lookers.

Danny closed his eyes, hoping—_praying_—that this was just a dream.

Oh, if only it were. Danny would be able to deal with this then.

Unfortunately for Danny, this wasn't a dream.

Unfortunately for the town, Danny had a pretty severe case of 'controlled' arachnophobia. It can be called controlled, because as long as knows there are spiders in a certain place, he wouldn't be as scared as if he didn't.

Vlad took the moment to look himself and stared in disgust. Why did they have to choose the one day he was in town and wanted to do something to attack? And whoever heard of six-foot spiders before?

Jack gulped and Maddie ran down to the lab for her machete while Jazz told Danny that it was alright.

Once Danny was calmed down enough that he wasn't too shocked to do anything, he took another look outside. Now that he knew what to expect he didn't have a problem about it being spiders. Just that they were eating people.

Danny didn't notice the warm, comforting feeling coming from his deck. It just didn't register. At least, not physically. It somehow helped to keep the boy mentally stable, though.

"Now, Maddie," Vlad's worried voice reached his ears as he became conscious of his mother coming back with her ghost-sword. It was obvious that Vlad didn't want Maddie to protect people.

"Not now, Vlad! Those people are getting killed! Don't you care?!" oh, she was livid. She turned away from the mayor and turned instead to Danny. "Honey, I need you to get the bug-spray and the flamethrower from the weapon's vault. The password's 'fudge'." Danny gave a mock salute and ran to the back of the house.

"You keep bug-spray in the weapon's vault?" Vlad asked skeptically. Things used to combat ghosts, he could understand. Keeping Combat™ in a weapon's vault, was just plain weird.

And Maddie seemed to think that not keeping bug-spray was weird.

It didn't take long for the ghostboy to come back with a nicely sized keg of bug-spray and a giant gun on his back. The keg was pretty heavy, but Danny could still lift it.

Maddie already had a game plan. She pulled out a map of the town.

"Alright, we need to get the spiders near here," this she accented with pointing on the map, "and then we dump the bug-spray on as many of them as possible."

"And then shoot them with fire, right?" Jack asked, bouncing up and down in his chair. Obviously Jack was a fire-bug. Maddie smiled.

"Yes, Jack. Then we shoot them with fire."

"YES!"

The group went back to the door as Jazz went upstairs to use the mega-phone. Vlad stepped behind Danny, who was closest to the door as it opened.

They didn't notice when the slimy-businessman pulled out his Plasmious Maximous and used it on Danny.

Though that might be because his Kuriboh card activated when Danny was supposed to feel the shock. But that didn't stop his powers from shorting out.

Nor did it stop something far more powerful to be thrust into life by the would-be shock. He felt a sharp burst of pain in his head, which he rubbed.

Vlad pushed the boy out the door, not noticing the fact that Danny hadn't responded to his weapon. Danny stumbled out, trying to keep his balance but fell to his hands and knees.

"Danny!" his mother called. Danny had fallen a good distance from the door. He started to get up, but something decided to 'help' him.

He was thrown into the air, and he heard the creature hissing and the forelegs moved in a pleased manner. Danny yelled out as his deck glowed with renewed intensity. Maddie gasped as bursts of light shot from her son's side as the boy fell towards the waiting maw of the spider beneath him.

"_Choose a path,"_ the wind whispered to him.

Strong arms caught the boy while the spider's dying screams echoed through the still night air. None of the spectators could breathe as Neo the Magic Swordsman laid the unconscious form of Danny Fenton on the ground and returned to fight the spiders alongside Red Archery Girl (complete with floating clam shell), Water Magician, and Swordsman from a Foreign Land.

A tall tan boy with white-blond hair ran through the streets with his own monsters protecting him from harm. He stopped as Neo shot a relatively small spider away from him. The Swordsman acknowledged Marik Ishtar with a nod before slicing through another that thought it could sneak up on him.

Red Archery Girl fired an arrow at a spider that wanted to snack on a group of kids that seemed to be locked out of their house.

"Please! Hurry!" her melodic voice called. The children didn't waste any time and quickly got the door unlocked and rushed inside to the adult in the house.

Water Magician was having a little bad luck hosing down the spiders that kept going after some of the bystanders.

"Don't just stand there! MOVE IT!" she ordered harshly. The idiots tripped over themselves to follow the woman's order. She smiled at the results and turned her attention back to the problem at hand.

The foreign Swordsman yelled at some of the spiders in his alien tongue as he sliced through one. He luckily didn't have to order people around. Not that anyone would have been able to understand him unless they spoke whatever his language was. Which was unlikely, since it kinda died a long time ago.

Marik's Revival Jam was attacked, but it reformed with a wince from Marik himself.

"What's going on?" he called to Neo. The Swordsman shrugged. The Egyptian cursed in Arabic under his breath as he called an attack on one of the spiders.

Red Archery Girl disappeared sometime during the fight, which Neo mentally swore at. The girl always finds a way to vanish when someone needs her!

Revival Jam protected the foreign boy while he summoned another monster to combat another spider.

The fight lasted another five minutes as Danny became conscious enough to feel pain. He started to writhe in pain as he clutched his head. The Shadow Magic he was inadvertently drawing energy from to support for his monsters was overwhelming. And it _hurt_.

The family waiting in an open door watched in a form of awed horror as they finally took in their spider-guts covered surroundings. And the writhing boy placed off to the side.

Neo sheathed his sword as he walked over to his Duelist. A large red clam floated over to him.

A very familiar red clam.

"Couldn't you have picked a better time to vanish, Layla?" Neo chided as he looked at Danny, not knowing what to do and the remaining monsters walked up to see if there was anything they could do.

"Well, Neo," Layla answered slightly irritated as the clam opened revealing not only herself, but two others. A girl wearing all black and a dark-skinned boy wearing a red hat. They appeared to be unconscious. "I doubt the boy would like it much if I let his friends die, don't you think?"

Neo shrugged at the mermaid. Water Magician finally gave up on waiting for Neo to do something about the boy being in pain and pushed the man out of the way.

"Hey!" The Magician ignored the other as she pulled the writhing boy into her arms and rubbed his side, where ironically he'd been attacked by the Plasmious Maximous.

The Foreign Swordsman said something that no one could understand. Well, almost no one.

"Yeah, you do that. It may help," Neo answered before the other Swordsman bowed and faded away. Neo turned to the exotic-looking boy nearby, who was looking at them strangely. "What?"

"You talk," Marik said simply. "I've never seen a monster that could talk before."

"And now you have," Water Magician said as Danny's condition seemed to get better for a moment before new pain was obviously introduced and made him cry out. "Anything else?"

"Uhh," was all Marik got out before Neo totally ignored him and went to Layla. He took the children she had been protecting and, after a quick conversation which ended when the mermaid disappeared like the Swordsman from a Foreign Land, carried the two to FentonWorks where Danny's family and Vlad were. Water Magician lifted the boy in her arms and followed the Swordsman. Marik followed her.

"W-What's going on?" the redhead woman asked as the three standing figures came close enough to identify in the dim light. Darn those spiders for knocking out the lightposts!

"Er," Marik started, using his best English, "I think that his Shadow Magic is trying to control him, but I guess he's fighting it off..." Marik shuddered, remembering when he had fought his own Magic. His own Darkness.

"And it's hurting him?" the old man in the suit asked. He didn't sound at all sorry for the boy. In fact he sounded almost hopeful. Marik caught the look the Suit received from Neo and Water Magician. They obviously didn't like this man. The blond wondered what this man could have done to deserve this treatment.

Neo laid Sam and Tucker on the couches as instructed by Maddie while Water Magician cradled Danny in her arms. Danny whimpered a bit as the female monster rocked him gently.

Maddie watched in surprise when she found that she could put names to faces.

"How are you—_what_ is going on here?" Jack had just noticed that he knew who the monsters were and was shaking a nervous Neo's gloved hand excitedly. She turned to Marik. "Who are you and what's Shadow Magic?"

"Ano," Marik muttered, trying to remember everything that Ishizu taught him about English. "My name is Marik Ishtar... Um, Shadow Magic is at least five thousand years old and only a few people—used to be just five or six—could use it. But Danny has so much, it must've...built up over time. I think that something was blocking his magic from becoming apparent." Marik shrugged. "Or something like that."

Water Magician moved her red-brown bangs as she shifted Danny in her arms.

"We're just here because he called us." The woman yawned a little. "If he hadn't, the whole city might be a ghost town." Jack's ears perked up at the word ghost, but instead of getting excited he actually understood the severity of the situation. Neo sat down next to his friend and leaned forward on his fist with a bored expression on his face as he inspected the room he was in. Being able to only peer out of a card that was more often then not hidden in a box on a belt doesn't give much insight on what everything looks like. All any of Danny's cards could do was listen in on what was going on around the boy. Even when Danny had gotten his ghost powers.

Neo could still remember it. Danny had taken off his belt to make sure he didn't lose it if something went wrong. Of course, something did go wrong.

Neo had been surprised that Sam and Tucker hadn't tried to go through the belt. He doubted that they just didn't see it. But they were pretty preoccupied. Not that they had tried to do anything more than yell his name as if that was helpful. Water Magician—who preferred to be called Aqua—had gotten into a conversation with Maddie as Neo pretty much ignored everyone while he thought. He could still hear everyone, he just kept his gaze on the table in front of him. He was still able to answer when someone cast a question his way.

His thoughts turned from Danny to the spiders.

They weren't natural. The only spiders that got that big were on those moving paintings—movies, he remembered—that Danny had seen before Sam had started dragging him to the more gory ones.

And the bad thing was that Neo had a feeling they would only get bigger. So he was needed to protect Danny and other people. But he just couldn't figure out how yet.

He heard Sam and Tucker rouse a few minutes later. Marik was the one nearest to them, so he was the one that was bombarded with questions.

Especially from Sam.

---====----====----====----====----====----====

Bakura was out cold on the couch as Ryou cleaned his kitchen. The younger whitenette prided himself at keeping a clean house, so even when Bakura found a way to blow something up (like the microwave) Ryou found a way to fix it (in that case, going out and buying a microwave with instructions right out in the open).

He'd been teaching Bakura how to use some of the more mundane electronics (since Bakura already knew how to use a laptop and game systems) and was quite successful with all but the ones used to clean.

Oh well. You can't have everything.

The boy peered into his den and shook his head at his Darkness. The other boy turned a little and smiled.

"Rubies...Emeralds... Got everything..." the boy snored softly. The spirit must've passed out after his chores. How cute, Ryou couldn't help but think as he held back a laugh and pulled a blanket (folded courtesy of Bakura) to drape over Bakura's sleeping form.

The next few hours passed pretty quickly (especially for Bakura ^^) and Ryou was soon bored.

It was only eleven in the morning. How had Bakura gotten up in the first place again? Oh yeah. He'd never gone to sleep.

Hence why he was passed out now.

A few times over the last few hours gave Ryou a little insight on what Bakura might've been dreaming of.

Definitely a tomb raid. At least at first.

He heard the words 'mom', 'sister', and something about food.

And of course he'd heard his own name a few times. Ryou had once thought that a normal smile would look weirdly out of place on Bakura's face. But it didn't.

If anything it looked... really nice on the boy's soft features. And those smiles had come everytime he mentioned his mother, his sister and surprisingly a nicer smile whenever he said Ryou's name.

The boy shook his head.

No, that can't be right. The smile was the same as when he mentioned his family.

Suddenly, a loud banging came from the front door, making Ryou jump and Bakura wake up as he fell off the couch. Bakura shouted something in Ancient Egyptian that Ryou wasn't sure about. It sounded like something about a boat and a bomb... Weird.

The banging continued as the two boys lifted themselves off the floor.

"What the hell!" Bakura said as Ryou started walking to the door. Bakura grabbed his arm.

"What? It might be important."

"Or it might be damgerous!" Bakura hissed back.

"You're still asleep, 'Kura," Ryou accused. Bakura opened his mouth to argue, but closed it at Ryou's glare. It wasn't much, but Bakura decided he wasn't awake enough to deal with a mad hikari.

"Fine. I'll wait here."

Ryou nodded at his Darkness as he continued to the door. He looked out the peephole and was surprised at who was playing police officer.

//Who is it?//

/It's Tristan. I wonder what's wrong?/

//Probably nothing//

/Bakura, no one comes knocking down your door over nothing/

Bakura shrugged as Ryou unlocked the door and opened it a crack, but Tristan pushed the door open and grabbed Ryou by the collar.

"What did you do to the Pharaoh!?" he growled at the boy.

"W-What?"

"You know what! Undo whatever it was you did to make him act like this!" He shook the boy in his grasp.

"Don't grab my hikari, Taylor," a low voice growled from behind him. Tristan heard the front door close and was suddenly not so sure of himself. Especially when he remembered whose voice it was.

"Wha—?"

"You heard me. Let. Him. Go." Tristan looked behind him and saw a pair of crimson orbs filled with as much anger as Ryou's brown ones were of fear. The brown-haired bully froze. He hadn't counted on dealing with the Tomb Robber. "_Now_."

Tristan's grip loosened enough for Ryou to slip out and stumble over to his yami. Ryou's arms wrapped around Bakura's stomach as Bakura's arm moved so that his hand rested on the boy's shoulder and Ryou could look out from his arm.

"How—what's going on?!" Tristan asked. Bakura's eyes narrowed.

"That's what I want to know," the spirit growled. "What gives you the right to come and attack someone in their own home?"

Tristan pulled himself together.

"You and the Pharaoh have been acting weird for the last few months and I wanna know just what Bakura did that would make all this happen!" Tristan backed up a little towards the kitchen as he spoke.

"Well, I can tell you right now that he didn't do anything. I don't know why the Great Fool would be acting 'weird', but I can tell you that I act however I wish." Bakura's voice was venomous. Tristan tried to stand his ground.

"I don't believe you. I know Bakura messes with some pretty weird stuff. Yami won't talk to Yugi and I want him to fix whatever he did and make everything go back to normal!"

Bakura felt Ryou freeze up behind him before the arms around his stomach tightened a little. Not to mention all the emotions that were coming from the boy. Fear... Sadness... a few others that Bakura couldn't figure out. Ryou was remembering everything that had happened before.

Ryou didn't want everything to go back to how they were.

"I don't know why the pharaoh is acting like that," Bakura hissed out again, wanting nothing more than to get Tristan out so that he could calm Ryou down. The boy was on the verge of just losing it from the memories. He could already feel the few tears that had been let out on accident seeping through his clothes. "Now would you kindly take your leave _before_ you end up _thrown_ out?" Bakura said this with a smile that showed off his fangs.

Tristan didn't waste any time getting out of there.

Once the offending idiot was out of the house, Bakura could tend to more pressing matters.

Like his falling-apart hikari.

He led Ryou to the den after making sure the door was locked and sat down on the couch, pulling Ryou up into his lap to comfort him. Ryou curled up against his yami as Bakura wrapped his arms around him and rubbed his hands on the boy's back.

"I don't want things to go back," the boy hiccupped between the tears. Bakura held him a little closer.

"I know," he soothed, "I don't want that either." That was the truth. He didn't want to go back to being the insane maniac. He didn't want to ever hurt his light again. And he knew he wouldn't.

"But... why would he think I did something?" he sniffed. Bakura rested his head on Ryou's.

"Who knows? As long as you didn't do anything, then we have nothing to worry about." He unconsciously tightened his hold on Ryou. "You didn't, did you?" Ryou shook his head under Bakura's.

"Of course not." He rubbed his eyes a little, totally comfortable in Bakura's arms. "You never get what you really want when you have magic do it for you. I'm sure you remember how I got most of my Monster World pieces," he answered. Bakura could only grin apologetically. That was the last time Ryou had ever made a real wish. He hasn't even wished on a star since he got the Ring.

And Bakura couldn't blame him.

"We still have to release some of them, you know." Bakura shrugged at Ryou's words.

"That can wait. They've been there for the last four or five years, they'll be fine to wait until tomorrow." Ryou sighed. He shifted a little on Bakura's lap before he realized what he was sitting on. He scrambled off of Bakura's lap with a beet red face and a soft apology. Bakura blushed too, but he hid it. He hadn't realized that he had the boy in his lap. It was a little embarrassing to have been caught off guard like that.

Ryou pulled his knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms around them. Bakura blew air out of his lungs and managed to lift his bangs on the current. What was going on with him?

Ryou leaned over onto the arm of the couch.

Bakura noticed it. He also noticed when his light yawned. He glanced at the clock. It was still far too early, but Ryou had cried. For some reason whenever Ryou had a bad day he was tired afterward. He put up a mental block and turned his eyes to the scene outside his window.

"Go on to bed, hikari." Bakura kept his gaze out the window as he spoke. Ryou turned to look at him.

"Yami..."

"I'm not blind. You're tired." Bakura still didn't look in Ryou's direction. The boy nodded as he uncurled himself.

"Fine. Just—Don't get into trouble. Please?" Bakura nodded at the request, keeping his gaze on the tree outside.

'_Oh, a squirrel. How nice.' _The spirit thought to himself sarcastically. But it did keep his eyes occupied. He heard Ryou get up and then he heard the boy's bedroom door close.

Bakura finally tore his eyes away from the 'interesting' scene outside and looked at the closed door. He sighed again as he kept the mental block up so that he could just think to himself.

Ryou didn't have to know that something was confusing his yami.

He wouldn't believe what it was anyways.

---====----====----====---====----====----====

Danny woke up with a small groan. His head hurt like crazy and all he wanted to do was go back to sleep.

"Are you awake yet?" a slightly familiar voice called over the pounding in his ears. He looked.

"Oh," he muttered. Then he really looked. And jumped up. "Marik! What the heck?"

"Well, let's see, you summoned four monsters at once that could talk and think for themselves, and it was all because you were about to be eaten by a giant spider," Marik informed with a smile.

"So the spiders weren't just a dream?" Danny sounded deflated. He had really hoped he had just had a nightmare. Marik shook his head at him. "So what happened? All I remember is falling."

"Like I said, you summoned four of your monsters, and they killed just about everything. But my monsters helped out."

"Why does my head hurt?"

"Side effect from using the Shadows. Eventually it won't be so bad, but you used so much that you had a bad reaction to it. That and... two of them are still hanging around. That's probably the main reason it still hurts." Marik shrugged. "C'mon, your mom's worried sick and your friends won't stop blaming me for your condition." He thought for a moment. "I doubt they've let up on Neo and Aqua either," he muttered. Danny blinked.

"Neo and Aqua? Who're they?"

"Um, Neo the Magic Swordsman and Water Magician. That's their real names as far as anyone can tell." Marik helped Danny up and then helped him walk to the stairs. Marik went down first so that if Danny fell—he was a little unsteady on his feet—he could catch him.

Once the two boys were downstairs, Sam ran up and hugged Danny tightly, sending a glare at Marik, who ignored it. He walked into the living room and sat down by a certain bored Duel Monster. Neo just looked at the boy before going back to being bored. Aqua was talking to Maddie—who was ignoring Vlad—while they cooked breakfast. Jack was downstairs looking for something and Tucker and Jazz were sitting as far away as he could from the newcomers while still being in the same room. He and Sam had called their parents last night to make sure they were fine. Apparently the spider incident was just on Danny's street.

Sam led Danny—who wanted to talk to Neo since that was his favorite card—over to Tucker so they could figure out what to do next.

"What do you mean 'what do we do now'?!" Danny hissed angrily. "What do you think we do now!?" Tucker gulped. He had been the one to ask.

"Well what are we supposed to do? Ask these weird people for help?" Sam asked. She made it sound like they couldn't be trusted.

"Hello, we 'weird people' would like a say in this," Neo called. Marik nodded as he grabbed a chair and pulled it closer to sit in backwards. He leaned on his arms which were resting on the back while Neo just sat in a chair that was closer to the group.

"And how do we know we can trust any of you?" Sam asked, crossing her arms. Danny stared at her.

"How do you know you can't?" Marik countered. It was a trick question of course. Sam flushed.

"Now that that is out of the way. What is going on?" Neo asked, looking at the rest of the group.

"No clue," Tucker answered after a moment. "I've been all over the internet looking for anything that might give us a clue, but I've come up with nothing."

"In...ter...net?" Marik repeated. He didn't know what that was. Tucker gawked at the Egyptian.

"You don't know about the internet!? Have you been living under a rock?" Tucker said as he pulled out his PDA.

"Okay," Neo said, changing the subject. "Try anything on Japanese spider attacks."

"Why? It's not like they would—oh, you're right."

Neo looked pretty smug.

"How did you know about that?" Danny asked. The Swordsman shrugged.

"Just a guess." Tucker clicked the screen a few times before 'aha'-ing.

"What's it say?" Danny asked, walking over to look over Tucker's shoulder.

"Well, let's see... 'Domino High School attacked during Halloween party...'" he started.

"What/Nani?" Danny and Marik (respectively) called out. Danny grabbed the device from Tucker's hands while Marik read with him, translating the English with only a little difficulty.

"Domino High? Isn't that where Bakura goes? Did he get eaten?" Jazz asked hopefully, earning a glare from Danny. Sam and Tucker blinked. Bakura?

"Bakura?" Neo asked softly. He thought for a moment before he snapped his fingers in realization. "Kid with the scary deck, right?" Danny nodded. Hmm, Neo remembered him... who knew that cards knew who they were pitted against?

'_Of course they know,'_ a light, echoed voice answered. Danny had heard it before, sure. But he always thought that he was just hearing things. It never answered a question for him. Maybe he was getting his homicidal maniac-spirit person wish. _'How else would they fight them?'_

"Wait," Sam said. "Who's 'Ba-coo-ra?'"

"Oh, Danny! You didn't tell them about Bakura? What kind of friend are you?" Jazz said, feinting distress at the fact. Danny threw a pillow at her, hitting her in the face. Once the pillow had slid off her face, she was scowling. Marik slid his chair away as Jazz got up—grabbing a pillow herself—and went after Danny, looking murderous.

"Hey!" Neo said, grabbing Jazz by the collar, making her stop.

"Let me go!" she screeched at the man. Neo shook his head at her before dropping her on the couch farthest away from her brother. She crossed her arms and huffed in anger.

"You two need to act your age," the Swordsman ordered, looking at both Fenton siblings. Danny shrugged. Jazz looked away and started to ignore him.

"And no, Jazz, Ryou _did not_ get eaten. Sorry to burst your bubble. Apparently, all the guys that crashed the party slipped into comas for no reason almost immediately," Danny answered, reading the original text instead of the translated one that Tucker had provided. Marik seemed to be a little better know that he knew that everyone was alright.

"Ree-you?" Sam repeated, the name feeling strange on her tongue. Tucker didn't notice her speak.

"So? Where're the spiders mentioned?"

"It's just reports of giant spiders crashing through the windows. There weren't any spiders—at all—present when the police arrived," Marik answered, handing back the boy's PDA, not knowing what else to do with it.

"Thanks," the beret'd boy said, pocketing his mini-computer.

"Okay," Aqua said, coming in with Maddie. "So just about everyone you know is being attacked," the woman summed up. "What do we do about it?"

Marik tapped his cheek.

"Ishizu said something about you meeting the Pha—I mean Yugi and his friends at the museum, remember?" he asked, looking at Danny. The raven haired boy blinked before understanding. He turned to his mom.

"Can we go?" he asked her. Maddie didn't have to guess what Danny meant. She thought for a moment.

"Will the town be safe?" she asked, turning to Vlad. He gave his best businessman smile.

"Of course, Maddie. I would never allow the town to go without protection. I'll have the best men and women in the ghost hunting business here to keep the ghosts away while you're gone!" Vlad exclaimed, making Neo's eye twitch a little. Neo obviously didn't like Vlad.

'_Obviously.'_ And there's that voice again!

"Awesome!" Marik said. "Can I use your phone to call my sister again? I'll have to call Bakura too..."

"Go right ahead, dear." Maddie went back into the kitchen with Aqua and Neo this time behind her. Vlad excused himself and left. Sam pounced on Danny.

"Who is this Ba-coo-ra?" Danny knew that Sam was having a hard time pronouncing the boy's name.

"Just a friend of mine. Nothing to worry about," he answered, trying to move away. Sam glared at him. Jazz smirked.

"Bakura's crazy! He actually thought that he was being controlled by this guy with tattoos on his face!" Marik—who had stepped in the room to go ask Maddie something—froze at hearing the description. Tucker noticed.

"What's wrong, Marik?" he called.

"Ne-I mean, nothing," he answered, almost using Japanese. He walked to the kitchen rather quickly compared to before.

---====----====----====

The cell phone rang _Ghost Busters_ on the coffee table as Bakura fought against the Wicked Witch/Dragon of Kingdom Hearts. He used a vertical slash to finish off the dragon.

The controller flew up into the air for a moment.

"YATTA!" he cried before he remembered that Ryou was sleeping in his room. The cell phone went off again, this time with Bakura hearing it.

He picked up the phone. "Yo," he answered.

"**Hey, Bakura?" **the voice said in English. Bakura blinked. He held the phone up to where he could see who called. It was Danny's number but—

"Nani? Marik? **Why are you calling from Danny's phone?"** Marik's voice was a little fuzzy, so Bakura used Ryou's voice and attitude. He heard the last thing he thought he'd hear.

"**Aww! He sounds so cute!"** came an unfamiliar female voice. Bakura blushed. But it was as he had thought. He was on speaker phone.

"I'm not cute," he muttered in Japanese before addressing the phone and picking his controller up to defeat a certain silver-haired possessed boy wearing a skirt. **"Why did you call, Ishtar? I hope it's more important than to say 'hi'?" **

"**Are you playing that Kingdom Hearts game again? Who're you beating this time? That Shadow Sora? Ansem? **_**Riku**_**?" **the way Marik said Riku was an 'embarrassing' hiss that Bakura decided to ignore.

"**No, Marik. I'm beating up defenseless old women," **Bakura answered sarcastically.** "Now answer my question." **He kept up the Ryou act, but he was growing impatient.

"**Why answer questions when I can ask some of my own? It's much more fun that way—"**

"—**Marik—"**

"—**and anyway, while I'm at it I could always just—" **

"—_**Marik**_**—"**

"**Or I could just sit here talking to you—"** But this time Bakura was beyond annoyed. But instead of yelling, how about we go a...different approach.

"**You know, Marik,"** complete silence, proving that what he was saying was working. Even with Ryou's soft voice, he could scare people. **"I got a new knife for my birthday. It's a beautiful blade, but you know what's missing?"** A gulp.

"**What?"**

"**Rubies. I heard that you had some, and I think I'll ask your sister if you could...**_**donate**_** some of them."**He heard some chairs moving and knew that his bluff had worked. After a moment or two of silence, Bakura spoke again. **"He left, **hai**?" **he called into the phone.

"**Er, yeah." **Bakura remembered that voice being... uh, Maddie-san's. Jack-san must be behind her somewhere. He wondered if Jazz was there too, and maybe Danny's friends. It would be funny if they caught on to what Bakura was implying... *insert evil smirk* **"You were kidding about the knife, right?"**

"**Yes, rubies would look kinda tacky. It looks nice without them."** Bakura knew that that hadn't been what they were talking about. **"Good. He wasn't being very nice,"** he answered, using more of Ryou's vocab and less of his own. **"So... how is everyone doing?"**

"**Um, pretty good considering some of what happened over here," **Maddie-san answered. Bakura blinked.

"**What happened?"**

"**Um, these really big spiders appeared out of nowhere and started attacking people," **the female voice from before, the one that called him cute, answered. Bakura blinked. He didn't recognize this voice from anywhere.

"**Just who am I talking to?"**

"**Um, my name's Aqua. I'm the Water Magician."** Bakura blinked. He couldn't possibly have heard her say that she was a Duel Monster, right? **"Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I really am the Water Magician. Neo the Magic Swordsman is here too." **A grunt came from the other side before Aqua chided Neo about his manners._ 'Well, now I can honestly say I've heard everything!'_

"**Alright? Well, ano**,** let's say I believe you're a Duel Monster. Maybe you could tell me more about what happened?"**

---====----====----====

An hour, and about two explanations later, one from Bakura about the Halloween party and one from Aqua and Neo about the Amity attack, Bakura was firmly convinced that he was actually _talking_ to two of Danny's favorite monsters.

"**Okay, so you want me to teach him how to use the Shadows? Hm, I'll think about it, but where would we put everyone? My house just isn't big enough for everyone."**

"**Well, Ryou, do you remember where our old house was?" **Maddie-san asked. Bakura sifted through some of his hikari's memories before answering.

"**Hai.** **I remember."**

"**Well, I figure we could go there while this Shadow business is going on. If I remember right, it should be by your house. Once we get there, we could enroll Danny in your school, and maybe you, Marik and your friend Yugi could teach him what he needs to know."** Bakura thought for a moment.

"**That might work... No, it should work. When is everything going to happen?" **He heard some muffled words and guessed that they were talking about it.

"**Um, we should be on our way by the end of the week. We already bought our tickets online and everything, we just need to pack."**

"**So who all is coming?"**

"**Um, me, Jack, Danny, Jazz, and Danny's friends. We'll have enough room, I believe."**

"**Okay, just be careful and watch your backs. You never know when spiders attack!"** Bakura said the last part almost cheerfully. They all said their farewells over the phone and Bakura had put down the phone to notice one thing.

"Oh man! I died again!"

---====----====----====---====----====----====---====----====----====

Bakura: Well, the explanation was pretty vague. It was almost non-existant!

Like your social life?

Bakura: Wha—?

Ryou: Hmm? Wha's goin on? *yawn*

Go back to sleep. You had a hard day, after all.

Ryou: *gives cute look under bishie bangs without realizing it* Okay. G'night.

Me and Bakura: G'night, Ryou.

Ryou: *Leaves*

Bakura: I guess you all can review now.

You guess? Hey, what're you doing over there? Kingdom Hearts? SQUEE!

Bakura: No! Back off! My game! NO!

Aqua: *Shakes head* Review please so that she can hurry up and finish the next chapter. It's already half written, after all. If you ask nicely, she might explain who was talking on the wind... *evil smile*


	14. Video Games

Good morning/noon/afternoon/evening/or night! This chapter had to be re-written a couple times... hey, um Marik? What are you doing?

Marik: *Is glaring at Riku*

Bakura: Oh he's just jealous that Riku has nicer hair.

Riku: Oh, I doubt he wants my hair...

Ryou: Why not?

Riku: The fangirls... they're evil... ACK! THERE"S ONE NOW! HIDE ME!!! *Runs off*

Ryou & Bakura: Poor guy.

... Okay... Hmm, I wonder what kind of shampoo he uses....

Bakura: You'll have to ask him when he comes back.

OK! I will!

Marik: *whispers* maybe he'll be smart and won't come back

I heard that Marik!

---====----====----====---====----====----====

Chapter 14: Video Games :D

When Ryou woke up the next morning and had gotten ready for school, he was surprised to not hear Bakura in his head. Fearing that he had gotten out like he usually did, he peeked under his pillow for the stolen loot he was bound to have gained.

Nothing was under the fluffy rectangle.

He walked out and saw his yami stretched out comfortably on his couch. He was on his stomach, with his head pillowed by one arm as the other was over the side with a PS2 controller lying limp in his hand. One leg was over the side as well. The game Kingdom Hearts was still on. It was at the Final Rest part, so Ryou saved the game and turned it off for his darkness.

As if Bakura knew that someone was watching him, he rolled over, losing the controller, so that he was tucked into the couch and his back was facing Ryou. The boy shook his head at him.

Some things you just could never get used to.

Like Bakura's smile.

Bakura had been smiling before he had rolled over. Ryou walked over to his yami and shook him gently.

"'Kura... I have to go to school now. Wake up." Bakura just mumbled something and pushed the boy away. Ryou shook his head again and decided to leave the Ring home. He was in control of the body, but maybe if the Ring was nearby, Bakura could go wherever he wanted to.

Ryou's heart sank at the thought that Bakura might not need him if this worked.

He shook his head to clear the thought. Of course Bakura would still need him! Light and Darkness need each other to exist!

At least, Ryou hoped that was true. He leaned over and picked up his bookbag before looking at the sleeping body on his couch. He sighed and walked over to the door. He opened it, and just before he stepped through the threshold, a familiar weight appeared out of nowhere. He looked down and saw the Ring around his neck. A smile appeared on Ryou's features.

//Next time, just try harder to wake me up// came Bakura's voice in his head. He heard a yawn and then felt a little warmer.

/Sorry, you just looked so peaceful. I didn't really want to wake you if I didn't have to/ Ryou answered as he made sure his door was locked and he started walking again.

//Heh. Just make sure you don't wake me up unless the school's on fire//

/Oh great. Now the school's going to be on fire. What did I tell you about jinxing things?/ a dry laugh came from the back of Ryou's head.

//Well, sor-ry. Meant it as a joke. But in all seriousness, don't wake me up unless there's a problem//

/Got it/ The rest of the walk was quiet. He passed Yugi's grandpa sweeping in front of the shop, but Yugi seemed to have already gone to school.

---====----====----====

Luckily, the school _wasn't_ on fire.

The school day went by pretty quickly for a Monday. He was on his way to his last class when he was pulled off to the side and into a bathroom.

All that he saw were yellow bangs and red eyes before he found himself in his soulroom.

"_Not again!"_ he yelled out. He crossed his arms and pouted a little. _"Oh well. At least I can still know what's going on."_ He watched from his soulroom at the exchange going on between Yami and Bakura. _"Please don't get into a fight, 'Kura..."_

"Get your hands off!" Bakura growled at Yami as he snapped his wrist away from him.

"I...I need your help, Robber." Bakura blinked. Surely he hadn't heard the Pharaoh ask for his help?

"Do you have a fever or something? Why would _I_ help _you?_" Yami looked him straight in the eye. Then he looked away as if he was embarrassed by something.

Or was it ashamed?

Yami leaned his back against the wall as he kept his gaze averted away from the boy he was talking to.

"I don't know what's going on lately. Yugi's mad at me and keeps blocking me, and he won't talk to me when I knock on his door," the Pharaoh muttered softly. Bakura blinked.

"Are you really a girl or something?" The Pharaoh didn't understand.

"I'm pretty sure I'm a guy, Robber. Why would I be a girl?"

"Well, girls have a week out of every month were they're... unbalanced. And they are very irritable probably for that entire week. First you wouldn't talk to your brat, and he came to us, now he won't talk to you. What the hell is going on here?"

"I guess it's because I've been thinking a lot lately, and I've been blocking it so that Yugi doesn't get a headache from it. He never let me explain that to him, he just brushed it off."

"So, if you didn't block him, you would be safe, but the kid's head would blow up as a cause?" Yami nodded. "That would be pretty cool to see," Bakura muttered, his morbid fascination growing. Yami glared at him. Bakura smirked. "So what were you thinking about?"

"What wouldn't I be thinking about Thief? It was about this Unknown mess. Whoever they are, they aren't affected by magic, and they don't scare easy. I was trying to think up a way to stop them _without_ resorting to your level." Bakura pretended to look offended.

"Why Pharaoh, I didn't know you felt that way!" Bakura smirked when he felt the bubbling feeling coming from Ryou's soulroom. Yami looked like he wanted to throw something at the other boy. "You could always just barge in on him if you're that desperate as to ask me for help."

"Somehow I think that will cause a problems instead of resolving them," the Pharaoh said, crossing his arms. "Yugi might just not want me around anymore." The Pharaoh looked away as he said this, all emo again.

"What are you talking about? Yugi must need you! Tristan came to beat Ryou up thinking he was why you wouldn't talk to your brat!"

Yami's eyes widened as he looked at the thief king.

"What? Why would Tristan do that?"

"Who knows? I just know that he was trying to beat down the door, Ryou thought that it was something important, so he went to answer it. Next thing I know, Ryou scared out of his mind and Tristan's yelling in his face to 'undo whatever he did to you'." Bakura used air quotes with his fingers. He then crossed his arms, waiting for Yami to either fess up with what was wrong, or let Bakura go to his last class, which by the way they were both late for. Bakura sighed. "You do realize that we're late for class, right?"

Yami just waved it off. It wasn't important to him. He crossed his arms as well.

"Maybe something is going on that shouldn't, or something," Yami theorized.

"Or maybe some much needed insight is what's going on. I've actually started being Ryou's friend, and we've all found out you're about as social as Kaiba on a good day," Bakura contradicted with a smirk.

Yami smiled. Bakura felt sick to his stomach at seeing it. Maybe Ryou was right. All those video games were definitely going to his brain. They were making him a—dare I say it?—_good person_. He'd thought that it had been just a phase, or maybe Ryou's feelings blending in with his own when he had beaten Final Fantasy X-2. He'd nearly freaked out when the world was about to be destroyed, after all. He'd blamed Ryou for that fit.

"Look, if it makes you feel any better, just talk it over with Yugi. I'm sure everything will get settled in its own time if you keep contact with the kid." Bakura walked over to the window and opened it. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there are more...enjoyable things I could be doing right now that we're skipping class."

"Wait," Yami called suddenly as Bakura tried to hoist himself up and out. The whitenette glared at the spiky-haired boy. Yami cleared his throat a moment before speaking. This was obviously hard on him. "M-Maybe we could, uh, hang out sometime?" Bakura blinked. Did Yami actually sound... shy? Bakura looked outside at the sky to see if it was falling.

It wasn't. So there was no reason for the Pharaoh to be acting so out of character. Bakura thought for a moment. He wasn't about to let Yami have his way and be friends with him per say, but it seems that _not_ being his friend was detrimental to Ryou's health. Though he did have fun scaring Tristan away. He put a finger to his lips.

"Maybe, Pharaoh. Maybe." He pulled himself out of the bathroom and stepped out on the grass. He turned around when he heard the window being pulled down. Yami had come with. How amusing. "Any reason why you're following me?"

"Curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat, Pharaoh," Bakura quoted with a smirk. Yami smirked back, knowing that Bakura was joking.

"Of course. So where are you going?"

"Depends, what's today?" Yami thought for a moment.

"Umm, the third?" Bakura blinked before glancing at his watch.

"Nani?! Where have I been? Well then, I'd better hurry! If you're coming, you'd better hurry too," he said as he started running for the gate. Yami ran after him, easily catching up to the whitenette.

"What's the rush?"

"What's the rush? Don't you know about the new game that comes out?" Yami shook his head. Grandpa didn't mention anything about a new game. Bakura sighed as he ran. "Its one of the most awesome video games, and I just _have_ to play it!"

"Video? Like Joey's games?" So the Pharaoh didn't know about video games. Weird.

"Yeah, but the one I'm getting is for a smaller screen. I gotta get home first, grab my PSP..." he said this mostly to himself.

/Birth by Sleep?/ Ryou smiled from his soulroom. He was definitely amused.

//Would I be this excited over anything but?// Ryou laughed.

/And you're bringing Yami. Did the world end?/

//It might've//

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" the voice of the gym teacher called out. Bakura groaned. Yami froze.

"Um," Bakura started, using Ryou's voice as he thought about what to say. He looked at Yami and thought of the most excellent excuse. "Yugi's grandfather is in the hospital, we just got the call and I was asked to go with him." Bakura lied easily.

/'Kura! The jinxing!/

The teacher looked at Yami.

"Is this true?" Yami took a deep breath, but the teacher didn't see.

"Yes, Sensei. Grandpa had a bad fall and I wanted to know if he was alright. The hospital isn't that far, so I thought that if we ran, we could make it there to check on him," Yami lied. He didn't look like he liked doing so, which made the lie even easier to believe. If you look upset, then saying something upsetting looks even more true. The gym teacher nodded, totally believing the game king.

Tears appeared in the overdramatic teacher's eyes before he covered them with his arms. "Go on, and tell him I said to get well soon," the man sniffed. The two spirits bowed respectfully and then ran off.

Once the school was out of sight, Bakura led the way to his house to get what he needed.

"I have corrupted the Pharaoh," he said. Yami looked at him. Bakura smirked back. "_Did_ the world end?" he asked innocently, repeating Ryou's question.

"I sure hope not. I think people want to live in a _not_ ended world, don't you?"

"Maybe. You can leave your bag at my house if you want." They made it to his house where Bakura grabbed a few bills of yen and as an afterthought, his cell phone in his living room while Yami set down his bookbag and waited at the door.

He pulled a disc out of the back of his PSP and Yami watched as he placed the disc in a case with a man on the front cover. The man had long spiked black hair and was wearing a strange wool-looking turtle neck without sleeves and a pair of leather-like pants with a huge sword. The title was interesting. _Final Fantasy_.

"You might like this game. But it's probably a little too...violent for your tastes," Bakura said, seeing what Yami was looking at. The Pharaoh jumped at Bakura's words.

"What's it about?" he asked, knowing that these kinds of games was more about story and not how to play.

"This guy," he pointed to the man on the cover, "is named Zack Fair. He's the main character in this game. It goes from just before he becomes...technically a general in an army to, well the end of his story. It covers a lot that people didn't know about him after they had played the original Final Fantasy Seven. It's really sad at the end," Bakura said as he walked back to the door.

"Sad? You know what sad is?"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Of course I know what sad is. That and... Ryou cried at the end." Yami decided not to continue that topic.

"Why is it called Final Fantasy if there are more than one?"

"I don't know. It might be because most of them follow a different set of characters in a different world than the one before or after them. Unless they're the same number. I have most of them." Bakura answered as he and Yami walked back outside.

"Really... where are we going anyway?"

"The mall. I have to go pick up my game. It's supposed to be really good. It's made by the same people that make Final Fantasy, but it's part of the Kingdom Hearts series."

"Kingdom Hearts?"

"Yeah," even though he didn't show it, he was thrilled to talk about one of his favorite games. "The first one is about this kid named Sora and his friends. They're building a raft to leave their island, but Riku—one of Sora's friends—decides that waiting until the next day wasn't working for him, so he goes and opens this door that destroys the world."

"What? Why did he—"

"He didn't know that was what was going to happen I guess. He was acting off when that was happening. Anyway, Sora gets this sword called the Keyblade and has to save other worlds—ones that he had been planning to go to anyway if the raft had had a chance of working—in order to find Riku and his girlfriend Kairi, who had just disappeared when their island was destroyed. You have to play it, but it's really neat. And you might just like his friendship speeches. The second one—Kingdom Hearts two—happens about a year later. He was asleep because of what happened in the game Chain of Memories—it happens between the two, obviously—and has to start fighting these things called Nobodies. He meets this guy named DiZ—who is a lot eviler than I am, by the way—and learns that Riku is _really_ hard to find when he wants to hide. The one I'm getting is what happened about ten years before Sora got the Keyblade." Yami was hanging on Bakura's every word. Then he realized something.

" This DiZ is more evil than you are? I find that a little hard to believe." Bakura shrugged.

"I liked one of the people he didn't, so I didn't like him. And then he was just using everyone to get what he wanted. He was over-manipulative." Yami 'oh'd and kept walking next to the thief.

"You make it sound like they were real, Bakura," Yami observed. Bakura nearly froze at that. His face flushed a little as well.

"Well, they might be. That game has a lot of insight on certain things. If there are other worlds out there—I mean, it's not unheard of. We have the Shadow Realm, and monsters live there, so why can't there be people like in other universes where what the video games say happens... well, happens?" Yami could see where Bakura was going with this. And he was right. There might be someplace where there are other worlds where video games are real. There might even be someplace where Ancient Egypt was still alive and well. Where there might be a Pharaoh still ruling, but maybe not using the power of the Shadows to protect his country. Who knows?

"Maybe." They kept talking about video games on their way to the mall. They had just made it to the front of the building when Yami decided that he wanted to play some of the games that Bakura was talking. It was when they walking into the mall when Yami stopped short.

"What?" Bakura asked as Yami looked around the open space. At all the people bustling around getting stuff from random doors.

"This place is huge," Yami eventually muttered as he looked around. It wasn't as big as KaibaCorp, but it came pretty close. It had four floors, after all.

Bakura chuckled. "Yeah, good thing the game store is on this floor, or I'd never keep your attention." Yami gave an apologetic smile. "C;mon, this way," he said, leading the King of Games toward the one type of games he'd never had the chance to conquer: Video games. Though he's probably never heard of computer games either. But that's beside the point.

When they walked in, Yami was staring in awe at all the different covers and posters spread around the store and a man was cleaning a display case. Bakura walked up to him.

"Taka-san," he called, smirking when he made the man jump. Yami walked over to a stack of strategy guides, listening to Bakura talk to Taka-san.

"Oh! Bakura-kun. I expected you a little earlier, to be honest," the man replied, pushing up his glasses to get a good look at the teen.

"Gomenasai, I had to go to school you know. Not allowed to be a full time gamer," Bakura answered easily. "Has it come yet?" he sounded just a 'little' eager to find out the answer.

"Yup. Your order is in the back. Feel free to take a look around for anything while I go get it." Taka-san picked up his cleaning cloth and walked through the door behind the counter to get Bakura's game.

"You come here often?" Yami asked, amused.

"Yeah. Games are the only things worth paying for, in my opinion," Bakura answered.

"So that's why you sounded like a child on a sugar high." Bakura stuck his tongue out at the Pharaoh before moving towards a shelf that had caught his eye. He picked out couple of cases and read the backs before nodding. He pulled a bill out as Taka-san came back out with a case about the same size as the Final Fantasy game Yami had seen at Bakura's. Bakura approached the counter and placed the games he had picked out on it. Taka-san looked at them a moment before looking at Bakura with a raised eyebrow.

"What? I told you I collect them."

"I know. It's just that these two are pretty old," Taka-san muttered before ringing them up. Bakura shrugged.

"I like classics," the boy said simply. Taka-san nodded as he bagged the games. He glanced over at Yami, not registering who he was yet.

"Are you getting something for your friend?" the man asked before who Yami was hit him. Taka-san's eyes widened. "Oh my God! It's Yuugiou! Stay right there!" he ordered as he ran back through the door.

"What just happened?" the Pharaoh asked. He didn't understand the need to keep saying that he was the King of Games. It was...unnecessary.

"Your guess is as good as mine, Pharaoh." Taka-san came back with a Rubix Cube. He handed it to a very confused Yami.

"I dare you to solve it," the man said, crossing his arms, smirking in contempt. Bakura watched as Yami solved the most intricate and evil puzzle of this millennia.

It took ten minutes, fifteen tops (what? He _is_ the King of Games. I think he could solve it pretty quickly), but when he finished, something fizzed within the box. Yami dropped it in fear as fireworks flew out and reached all the way to the ceiling, making several loud pops and bangs that had even Bakura taking a step back. Taka-san started laughing and the teens' fear.

Yami ended up taking refuge behind Bakura as the mini-fireworks show continued.

When it finally ended, Taka-san picked up his puzzle and looked at it proudly.

"What...was that?" Bakura said, managing to find his voice. He'd seen some pretty weird things—he was five thousand years old—but he'd never seen anything even remotely similar to what Taka-san had just shown them.

"My Rubix-trap! It is designed to scare the crap out of anyone who solves it! I'm having it patented, but it'll big in the pranking world!" Taka-san laughed. Bakura was not amused. It had scared _him_, and that was no laughing matter.

"It's quite...interesting," Yami provided, trying to fit the evil puzzle with a description. He hoped that the Millennium Puzzle hadn't been that much of a light show when it was completed.

"Yeah, um, we'd better head home," Bakura said, trying to avoid more traps placed into innocent-looking puzzles.

"Yeah, Grandpa might be worried about me if I don't get home soon," Yami supplied, seeing what Bakura wanted. He definitely wanted the same thing. Bakura pulled the Pharaoh out of the shop as Taka-san said his goodbyes to them.

"Finally," Bakura muttered as he led Yami out of the mall. He reached into his pocket for his phone. "You wanted to check up on your grandfather, right?" Yami nodded and grabbed the phone to call. It had taken Yami a year to get used to phones, but he had had Yugi's help. He'd even memorized everyone's—Tea, Joey, Tristan, Grandpa—phone numbers in case he ever got lost or needed to check up on someone.

After the call, it was certain that Grandpa was alright and that Yami would be at Bakura's until it started to get dark. They were almost at the street they would turn on to get to Bakura's house when a question that had been nagging Bakura—and no, it wasn't Ryou. He fell asleep after the Rubix disaster happened—decided it wanted to be asked.

"Yami, what's your relationship with Yugi like?" Yami blinked at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Is it like you're a father, a brother, a friend, or...different?" Bakura winced at the last word. Yami thought for a moment.

"I don't know, we're just...partners, I guess. Why?"

"No reason. Just curious." He led the way to his house. They changed the topic a few times as they kept walking.

Yami and Bakura walked inside and the Pharaoh watched as Bakura sat down by his entertainment center and opened one of the cabinets at the bottom. He watched as Bakura moved a couple games and slid the games he had bought today into place.

"What?" Bakura asked, noticing Yami's eyes on him.

"You're taking great care of where you put your games," the spiky-haired teen answered. Bakura shrugged.

"Ryou says I'm OCD like that. I just like having my games in order. Helps me find the ones I want to play without too much searching," he said.

"That makes sense, I suppose," Yami nodded. He was the same way about his cards. He liked knowing exactly where what he was looking for was.

Bakura stood up. "Okay, pick what you want to play and I'll set it up for you." Yami nodded at the other spirit before taking a look at the games on the shelf.

"I like...this one," the Pharaoh proclaimed as he picked Final Fantasy X off the shelf. The whitenette nodded.

"That's a good one. It's the first one I actually played," he said as he opened his PS2 and popped in the game and got him started.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Ryou covered his eyes at a part, and I was curious."

"Let me guess, Ryou slept all day the next day?"

"Yup. Okay, it tells you what button does what, so pay attention." Bakura dropped down on his couch and picked up the new game and his PSP and averted his attention to his game.

"What are you doing?"

"I didn't get this one to just put away. I'm gonna beat it!" And with that, Bakura was totally engrossed in his new game. Yami paid attention to his own and was soon as addicted to this as Bakura was.

---====----====----====

About three hours later, the doorbell rang. Subconsciously, Bakura stood up and walked over to the door to answer it.

"Hi Joey," the whitenette answered before the blond could open his mouth.

"I heard that Yugue was here," the teen said as he followed Bakura in.

"Hai. He's here." Joey stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Yami—he kinda knew the difference, as long as he wasn't pressured—draped over an armchair playing some underwater ballgame.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Yami said something that Joey couldn't understand. Bakura nearly dropped his game.

"What did he say?" Joey asked while Bakura was stunned. Yami blushed when he figured out what he himself had said.

"Did you really just say that?" the whitenette asked, still stunned at what had come out of the spiky-haired boy's mouth.

"I-I didn't mean to say it," the spiky-headed boy said. Bakura rolled his eyes. He inspected the screen.

"Suuure you didn't. I know the Goers getting the ball is annoying, but I didn't expect you to remember _that_ word because of it."

"R-really! It's just that this is Wakka's last game and..."

"Yeah, right. You just wanted to say it."

"What word," Joey whined. Yami's face flushed a little redder as Bakura laughed.

"He said "bullshit", Joey. I didn't even know you _knew_ that word!" Bakura had to put down his game while he calmed his laughter down. In their soulrooms, however, neither Yugi nor Ryou could contain their laughter. Ryou from both the word that Yami had said and the surge of emotion, and Yugi from how embarrassed Yami was. He didn't understand what the Pharaoh had said anyways. Which was a good thing. The bad thing—in Yugi's opinion—was that Yami had heard him. When Yami tried to coax him into talking to him, Yugi slammed his door.

Joey smirked at the Pharaoh, not knowing what had happened to him.

"Maybe I'm rubbin' off on you after all!" the blond said, sitting down by Yami. That comment just served to embarrass the spirit further. But the boy didn't move from his position on the chair.

"That's not a good thing," Yami muttered softly.

"So, what's Tea doing today?" Bakura asked, picking his game back up. Joey shrugged.

"She said somethin' about her job, so I guess she's working today." Yami scored as Joey talked.

"Goers 1, Aurochs 5," Bakura commentated. He heard the buzzer sound and smirked when the crowd started saying Wakka's name.

"Huh?" Yami muttered, confused. "What's going on? Wakka's hurt! He can't play!"

Despite the boy's protests, Wakka was brought back out on the field. Even with the handicap, Yami managed to block all of the attempts at scoring from the Goers.

The game ended with the score being 2-7, with the Besaid Aurochs winning. Joey cheered at Yami's victory, and Bakura nodded.

"I win every once in a while. There are players that you can hire around Spira for your Blitzball team, and you get some cool things from playing in other tournaments. It just didn't interest me," Bakura said. Yami was proud of himself for the win. This game was a good experience for him to practice sports—he was really really bad at teamwork stuff. Shh! Don't tell Kaiba! Or Joey for that matter—and he knew that Yugi was paying attention as well. Joey found a way to wander over to Bakura's collection without anyone noticing. He pulled out a couple games—which Bakura's highly trained ears picked up on—and tried to read the covers.

"Hey, 'Kura, what's this say?" he asked, holding up an English version of Final Fantasy VII.

"Oh, that's just a game in English." Then he remembered. "Ra dammit! Ryou's going to kill me!"

Yami blinked. "Aren't you already dead?"

"That's beside the point." Bakura sounded a little annoyed but mostly miserable.

"Why would he kill you?" Joey asked. Ryou was a nice boy. He wouldn't hurt a fly!

"Some friends of his are coming from America and... I kinda forgot to tell him." Bakura gave an innocent 'save me?' smile that Yami rolled his eyes at. Joey gave a sympathetic smile as he put the games back where he had found them, hoping that maybe by doing so, Bakura would be spared from whatever wrath Ryou might possess.

/WHAT???!!!/ Bakura winced at his hikari's voice. It hadn't taken long for Ryou to realize what he was talking about. Maybe he should lock the gameroom door and hide the key... Oh, darnit. That won't work.

"So when are they coming?" Yami asked, amused at the other's obvious 'fear of the Light'.

"End of the week," Bakura answered, hoping to divert Ryou's attention to the game. King Mickey was kinda annoying in this game. Even Ryou had to admit that.

"Hai. You're gonna die," Yami said, smirking at Bakura's expression. He was just about to tell off the Pharaoh when both Yami and Joey's attention where taken to the scene taking place on the screen. Bakura sat back knowing that his rant had lost all relevance and power.

"Woah," Joey muttered as Yami listened to Maechen's story of Lord Mi'ihen.

"Wow. That guy's a hero..." Bakura nodded at Yami's words.

"Yeah. But, things change. If you didn't hear him, Mi'ihen wasn't exactly liked until he saved somebody. He wasn't a hero until after the fight. Before, his Crusaders were 'evil', after all."

Yami was quiet. Bakura watched as he maneuvered his character—whom he had dubbed 'Tehk', by the way—through the path from Luca. Tehk had come a long way in just four hours. Bakura figured that Yami was thinking about something on the game. Maybe he liked Yuna. She did resemble Tea, and it was no secret that Yugi liked hanging around Tea more than the others. And Bakura knew that Yami had gone on an unofficial date with the girl.

To this day, Bakura had no idea how the guys could survive being exposed to her and her speeches like that. Of course, they weren't the ones on the other side of the speech, so they could just look away and do something else. And he was lucky to not have somehow provoked her into a speech... That would have been a doozy.

Yami was quiet until Bakura and Joey both saw that it was starting to get late.

"Er, Yugue?" Joey started. Yami was just getting to the Chocobo Eater fight. Luckily, it hadn't started yet. He was saving his game. Crimson eyes looked up. "It's startin' to get dark out. I think that Gramps'll have a heart attack if you're not home soon." Yami blinked.

"Oh! You're right! I told him I'd be home before dark," Yami said, making sure his game was saved and Joey turned off his game for him.

"I'll walk ya home," the blond said as Bakura got up to help Yami with his bag. The whitenette saved his game before pulling on his own shoes to make sure that both boys in his charge got home safely. No one dared to mess with the King of Thieves, after all. The Pharaoh had just picked up his hikari's bag when a knock sounded. Bakura opened the door—after all, he wasn't afraid of a mere mortal, and he doubted giant spiders could knock on doors (They could use the doorbell)—and was surprised.

"Well, if it isn't Ishizu."

---====----====----====---====----====----====

Hey! Riku's back!

Riku: Uh, whoops? Wrong place?

Nope! *hugs Riku's arm* I have some questions for you!

Riku: *Looks to Bakura and Ryou for help*

Bakura: Sorry, pal. No help here. *steers Ryou away from scene*

Ryou: Kura! There has to be something—

Bakura: There isn't! Now c'mon before she notices us!

Alright! What do you do to your hair to make it so shiny!?

Riku: Um, I use that new Dove stuff...

Why?

Riku: My mom makes me? (Hey! One of those literation things! What's the one? Not alliteration, the other one... Hm, this is a toughie)

Ryou: This might take a while...

Bakura: So if you have any questions for Riku—

Bakura & Ryou: Review!


	15. Coming Together

Okie, so no bad guy action in this chapter unless you count Bakura keeping his rep up in the beginning—

Bakura: I _am_ a bad guy!

--but everything turns out nicely! And not in this story you are, Kura.

Bakura: But—

Ryou: I think it would be best if we didn't argue with her...

Disclaimer: I'm a girl, so I can't be Takahashi-sama nor Butch Hartman, who last I read were guys.

Chapter 15: Coming Together

"Well if it isn't Ishizu."

"I don't have time for thieves, I'm afraid," the white-clad woman answered, looking beyond the whitenette to see the Pharaoh. Bakura scowled at the holder of the Millennium Necklace.

"And to enter my house, you need to pay an admission fee. Your Item should do nicely," Bakura shot back easily. He had a rep he needed to maintain, after all. It would be going up in smoke if Yami ever realized what the game-playing was really for. Ishizu shot him a 'you can't be serious' look. Bakura shrugged. "What? No Item, no entry."

"That's enough, Bakura," Yami stated. Bakura ignored him.

"I did not come to enter your house anyway. I came to speak to the Pharaoh."

"What about?" Yami asked politely. Ishizu nodded.

"Apparently, the thief decided that you, my brother, and himself would be teaching a boy about the Shadows—and I would like my bracelet back," she said, holding her hand out to the whitenette. Bakura frowned and pulled a pretty diamond charm bracelet out of his pocket. He placed the jewelry in the woman's hand. Joey couldn't help but wonder how he stole that so fast. Bakura shrugged.

"Just wanted to know how long it would take for you to notice," the boy said as he leaned against the doorframe. Ishizu just glared at him. He looked behind her. "Where's Odion?"

"At the Game Shop," Ishizu answered without thinking. She returned her attention back to the tri-colored haired teen in front of her. "Pharaoh, you still have a choice as to teaching Danny—"

"Wait—Danny? Isn't that your other's friend, Robber?" Yami asked.

"One and the same. So are you gonna pull your own weight and help teach or what?" Yami glared at the whitenette and opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly crimson was replaced by violet and the boy's voice was higher.

"Iie! I don't want any part of this!" the thirteen year old yelled before running out the door with his bag. He left the three remaining stunned. Joey was the first to recover.

"I'll... go make sure he's alright," the blond said before brushing past the Egyptian. She blinked.

"What is going on?"

"Well," Bakura started. He paused while he wondered whether or not to tell her. It's not like it was her business to know that, but the more people that knew, the easier it would be for Yugi to go to someone for help, should he need it.

/Tell her, Kura. She might be able to help them/

//Alright. But this is the _only_ time I'm helping him//

/I know. And thank you/ Bakura chose to ignore the statement.

"The Pharaoh and his brat aren't seeing eye-to-eye these days. It's all a misunderstanding as far as I can tell, but Yugi won't talk to Yami," Bakura answered. Ishizu blinked. The spirit placed his fist on his hip. "What are you going to do about it? I already tried to help."

"Oh? What could you possibly have done to help the Pharaoh?"

"I had him play some games of mine—I figured that if Yugi saw him playing something new, he might talk to him...maybe out of curiosity if nothing else. I think it almost worked too." Ishizu gave the whitenette a good once over. Bakura noticed. "What?"

"Marik said that you were a sadistic maniac that liked hurting people. And yet, you're trying to help someone. What caused the change of heart?" Bakura's eyes widened as his brain processed the last few words. _Change of Heart_. He smacked himself.

"Duh! I'm so stupid! That's what it meant!" The Egyptian didn't understand.

"What what meant?"

"Don't worry about it," was Bakura's quick reply. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Oh, right. I really must be leaving." Ishizu turned on her heel and started walking away. She stopped a moment. "Be good, for your host's sake." And she left. Bakura mocked her as he shut the door.

Ryou appeared in the living room. He was laying on the couch that Bakura was on before

"What?" he asked for the hundredth time that day.

"What did you figure out? I didn't catch it," the boy answered pulling himself up into a sitting position as he looked at Bakura. Bakura sat down by him and leaned back.

"I was thinking that Change of Heart might be what's happening to the Pharaoh and me. We're both acting a little different than usual."

"And I think you just regained sanity—"

"Sanity? Who said I _ever_ had any of that?" Bakura interrupted with a friendly smirk.

"Well, you couldn't have been _born_ a psycho, right?"

"Keep telling yourself that, hikari. Keep telling yourself that," Bakura answered slyly as he picked his game back up. Ryou rolled his eyes with a smile on his face.

"Well Yami's probably just feeling a little wrong, and Yugi's probably trying to find a way to deal with it. He's only thirteen, after all. It might not be the Pharaoh at all—just Yugi trying to cope with something."

"Geez, that's no excuse. When I was thirteen, I was on my own and doing whatever I wanted." Ryou knew that by 'wanted' he meant 'had to'. Bakura was just too proud to say so. After all, when you're the king of thieves, you never 'need' to do anything. Or, at least that was what Bakura had told him.

"Well, Yugi's not you. He might be a little overloaded with some of Yami's feelings or something."

"Like going through puberty?"

"I doubt he'll be going through that yet."

"You went through it then," Bakura pointed out. Ryou blushed a bit. That had been an awkward year. Bakura hadn't introduced himself to Ryou at that time, but the boy knew that someone was laughing at him whenever he had tried to talk. It had been embarrassing for the poor kid.

"Give him another year, Kura. Not everyone takes the same time." Bakura closed his eyes.

"Yeah, I know. I knew someone who didn't get his voice change til he was almost twenty."

"Thief friend?" Ryou didn't really like to say 'minion' or 'henchmen'. Bakura knew that.

"Thief friend." Bakura laughed. "Is it a bad thing you know so much about me?"

"Is it a bad thing that we share a body? Depends on who you ask. I say no, but...don't ask the Fentons."

"Against possession?" Ryou nodded. "Makes sense. I doubt a lot of people would be pro-possession, anyways. That's why so many of them do those exorcizing things. I wonder if they really work," Bakura yawned. Ryou took the game away from him. "Hey!"

"You stayed up last night. I don't want to pass out at school tomorrow."

"Grr... Fine. Do your homework, yadda yadda yadda," Bakura answered before going into the bedroom. Ryou made a mental note to eat a slightly bigger breakfast in the morning. He grabbed his bag and a snack to munch on—he didn't know where it would go, but it didn't matter. He felt hungry—and set to work on his math homework.

---====----====----====

An hour later, and Ryou had finish his homework, his snack, and a phonecall from Danny giving an update on their situation. There had been nothing new. It was mainly an 'are you okay' call.

He stretched and walked into his room to check that Bakura was still there and hadn't gone out for a 'midnight stroll'.

Bakura was in bed, dressed and not under the covers, but asleep. His back was to the wall and he seemed totally comfortable. Ryou shook his head at his darkness. He sat down on his bed before gently removing the school uniform jacket, one arm at a time. Bakura rolled over and Ryou was able to get the jacket off.

The elder whitenette hadn't tied his shoes yet, so it was easy for Ryou to take them off. Of course, now that the jacket was missing, the short-sleeved shirt did nothing to hide the bandages. Ryou looked at his own arm, but there was no scar there. But that didn't mean that the knife Bakura had used didn't scar the body. The body scarred. The spirit didn't.

The whitenette pulled the blanket out from under his other and draped it over the other teen.

Ryou yawned quietly before disappearing into his soulroom to sleep. He pulled Bakura out of control easily so that he wouldn't have to fight with an irritable spirit in the morning. He left his door open out of habit—after all, who could break into your mind (don't answer that)—and slipped into his bed, finding sleep quickly.

---====----====----====---====----====----====

Danny thrummed his fingers against the table in pure boredom. Marik was currently upside down in a chair, Neo and Aqua had gone back to wherever they had come from—leaving Danny headache-free—deeming Danny safe enough with Marik and a plane-full of people, and hopefully capable of calling them back when he needs help, and everyone else was wherever. Marik didn't spare a glance the raven-haired boy's way.

"Hey, you duel, right?" the blonde asked. Danny looked up from his musical.

"I'm a bit rusty...why?" Marik turned right-side up in the chair.

"I'm bored!" Danny rolled his eyes at the Egyptian.

"Oh no," he whined sarcastically. "Not that! Anything but that!"

It worked. Marik laughed. Danny couldn't help but laugh as well. It's been five days since the attack—one till the plane ride—and while Danny and Marik weren't best friends per say, they were getting along pretty well. Marik called his sister daily to make sure she and his brother were alright while Sam fought with her parents about the trip she was going to make—they were happy she wanted to leave, but the opposite could be said about _who_ she was going with—and Tucker was trying to talk his parents into _not_ wanting to come with them. Jazz was constantly asking Marik what he knew of Bakura—she was convinced he was crazy, after all—and Maddie and Jack were trying to figure out what ghost weapons they could bring while they packed the blueprints to most of their already-made and about-to-be-made stuff.

"I'm still bored," Marik muttered. The tanned boy shrugged as he leaned forward, trying to find a comfortable place to take a nap—yeah, he was that bored.

Danny pulled out his deck and placed it on the table. Marik looked at it before grinning. He pulled out his own cards and their duel started.

---====----====----====

"Don't worry, honey, you'll beat him next time," Maddie comforted easily while Danny sulked. Marik, on the other hand, was quite happy.

The blond shuffled his cards as he whistled. He put them away just as Jazz walked in. She sat down at the table next to Marik—who slid away from her about an inch—set a book on the table, and laid her head on the book. Danny reached over and poked his sister's cheek. She opened one eye.

"Jazz, I know you said you learn better while you sleep, but I doubt using the book as a pillow is going to help," the boy quipped as his mother set the children's lunch in front of them. Jazz glared at him sleepily as Marik picked up the peanut-butter sandwich and took a cautious bite out of it. He was still getting used to the different foods that he was trying by staying at Fenton Works.

So far he'd had a few things that he had tried in other recipes that Odion had made for them while they were growing up, but they were made differently. He was a vegetarian, and Maddie made him meals accordingly—Sam was an ultra-recyclo vegetarian, so Maddie knew how to cook for non-meat eaters—and tonight he was going to try something called _spaghetti_.

Apparently, whatever spaghetti was—Marik had never heard of it—it wasn't made often. When Jack had heard, he'd rushed over to give Maddie a special kiss.

Marik was still gagging at the memory.

It was a miracle that Danny and Jazz had survived, in his opinion.

"Jack," Maddie called down the stairs where her husband was packing. "Dear, it's time for lunch."

"Oh boy!" Jack's voice floated up from the basement as the orange-clad man ran up the stairs to get his sandwich. As Jack devoured his sandwich, Jazz woke up enough to psychoanalyze Marik again. The Egyptian wanted to bang his head on the table.

---====----====----====

Friday morning came all too quickly for the Fenton household. Especially for Danny.

Dinner had passed in a blur last night, and Marik had beaten him a couple more times at dueling, but Danny had gotten lucky during the last duel.

Kuriboh saves lives.

All hail the Kuriboh.

All hate Revival Jam.

Anyway, it was last minute preparations when Sam and Tucker showed up, complaining about how unfair their parents were.

"A week!" Sam was saying. Marik had made himself scarce and left Danny to torture. "All I get is a week! What could we possibly get done in a week!?"

"Hey, you got that easier than I did," Tucker responded. "I had to leave most of my babies at home for that week!" And then he started crying over the loss of his precious technology. Danny couldn't help but think how Tucker was the weird kid—and he had ghost powers! Well, he _had_ ghost powers. As in, he couldn't feel the glow-y power course through him. Of course, the Shadows that ran through him was a good substitute.

He'd told Marik about his...condition, and they agreed that Danny's ghost half must've been suppressing his natural magic—which would have been about a drop at best—making it far too much for most people to deal with. Marik also said that the magic had to have been showing itself as new powers as to avert from just straight overpowering him and leaving him soulless, or dead. Whichever happened first.

Danny didn't honestly like either option, so he was glad that the Shadows used his ghost half to release its power.

He didn't know if choosing the black door over the green door was a good thing though. But Change of Heart had said that he should try something new. Darn dreams! When he needed everything to explain to someone—i.e. Marik—he couldn't remember it! But when he didn't need it, he remembered it in perfect detail!

Oh well, maybe Ryou would know more about it. He was into that kind of thing, last Danny checked.

Today was the flight. In a few short hours they would be going to Amity Airport and catching a plane to Domino City. Danny was excited. Jazz, Tucker, and Sam really weren't. After all, the only reason they came was so that they were in the loop. Marik and Danny knew, they just didn't care.

Marik put his bag in the GAV just like everyone else while the Fentons went back to Danny's school to tell the principal that Danny and Jazz were no longer going to attend the school.

He didn't see the big deal about school. He'd never been to school. His father had taught him how to read and write, and some other things. He'd never been told about the outside, though. So he had missed out on a lot of stuff that anyone else had been able to experience—like airplanes.

Of course, he'd been on a plane a few times. One coming to this city with his sister, one leaving, and...does Kaiba's blimp count? It had been up in the air...

Though riding a duel monster wasn't the same at all. He'd 'borrowed' one of Odion's cards—he couldn't remember the name, but it was a dragon—and had asked it to take him here when he sensed the Shadows being used. He'd come just in time, in his opinion.

Now Marik was bored again, and a bored Marik is not a happy Marik. He eventually pulled out his deck and played a type of War with his 'apprentice' while explaining the rules of the game to Sam and Tucker.

In this type of war, it wasn't just the attack points that decided which card won. Like Marik drew a card with relatively high attack points, but Danny drew Man-Eater Bug. Man-Eater Bug's effect was to destroy the opposing monster, so the Bug won the match. Marik drew his Revival Jam which normally would have won him the match, but Danny had drawn the magic card Mind Control. So Danny, having control of the Jam monster, won.

Danny had a few cards that took its opponent out of play, so those cards couldn't be tallied with the others. Trap cards were automatic wins depending on what they were for—both had Trap Hole, so yeah—and magic cards that affected the life points were automatic losses. When they drew something that a) had the same attack and neither had an effect b) was the same card or c) were both magic/trap cards that didn't do anything—like equip-cards, life-point damaging, life-point recovery—were placed 'out of play'.

So far, Marik was winning by one set of cards.

---====----====----====

Brown eyes opened Friday morning at about seven-thirty. They blinked a moment before getting used to the light.

And then they closed again.

//Ryou// a voice called sleepily. //Ryou you know you don't like getting up any later//

"Mmfm," Ryou muttered, burying his head in his pillow. Bakura materialize by the bed and shook his head at the scene. He'll never admit it to the boy, but it very cute when Ryou was like this. His snowy hair was tussled, the natural spikes were sticking up every which-way and he was wrapped up in the blanket like a cocoon, showing just how small Ryou really was.

"Ryou," Bakura tried again to verbally wake his light up. To tell the truth, Bakura was a little worried that Ryou might've been sick. He never liked to sleep in. How do you tell if someone was sick again?

Oh yeah, you feel if the face is warmer than usual.

He reached over and brushed Ryou's cheek with the back of his fingers. He froze at the contact. Instead of finding out if his face was warm, he felt how soft his light's cheek was.

He pulled away his hand and then literally smacked himself. He was doing this to see if he had a fever! Not to find out how well his soap worked!

He reached over again, but was saved the trouble by a knock on the door. He answered it and greeted Tea and Joey.

"How's your other doin'?" the blonde asked. Bakura sighed.

"He's sleeping. I think he might be sick, but I can't tell. It's probably nothing, though."

"Is he out? I'll check on him," the brunette offered. Bakura nodded and led the girl through his house to the bedroom.

She sat down by the still-curled-up Ryou and gently placed her hand on his cheek, then his forehead, and then his other cheek.

"Yeah, he's got a small fever. Nothing a bit of medicine won't cure," Tea reported. "When does your friend show up?" Bakura realized that Joey must've told her about Danny coming and checked his—Ryou's—watch.

"In about... five hours. I think there's something in the bathroom that might count as medicine," Bakura answered, pointing to a door near the bed. Joey nodded and walked into the small room for all of twenty seconds before coming back with a bottle of something purple.

"Got it. Was easy to find this, too!" the blond boasted pridefully as he handed Tea the bottle. She read the back and looked at the sleeping boy.

"Hmm, all we need to do is have him take it," Tea muttered. Bakura nodded. He shook Ryou, who just cuddled deeper into his pillow and pulled his blanket closer to himself in a vain attempt at staying asleep.

Kura sighed as Joey and Tea thought about what to do. Tea was about to say something, but she stopped when the spirit sat down on the bed and just pulled Ryou into his arms. Ryou yelped as he was forced awake.

"Well, that's one way of doin' it," Joey commented as Tea filled the spoon with the medicine. The whitenette didn't seem surprised at the fact that Joey and Tea were there. That meant that either he was used to them, or he knew that Bakura wouldn't let someone that would hurt him into the house. Bakura held the boy's head so that Tea could spoon in the fever reducer. Ryou made a face at the taste before curling up against Bakura.

What Tea noticed was a faint flush on Bakura's cheeks that appeared when Ryou tucked his head against his shoulder.

What Joey noticed was that Ryou was about to go back to sleep. He tapped the boy's shoulder to startle him back to reality. Ryou groaned quietly before sitting up. He rubbed his eyes to try to wake up more.

"C'mon, buddy," Joey said cheerfully. "Your friends're comin' today!" Ryou nodded while Bakura and Joey helped him out of bed. All the whitenette wanted to do was go back to sleep, but he knew he couldn't. Tea picked out a nice outfit—light blue shirt with dark blue jeans—and pushed him towards the bathroom so he could get dressed.

It didn't take long for Ryou to dress. He came out with a washed face and a hair brush.

"Too bad Yugue didn't wanna come," Joey said while Ryou brushed his hair.

"I don't care either way," Bakura replied. "Though it is strange that the pipsqueak would not want to meet someone." Joey bristled a little at Bakura's insult, but he didn't say anything. He knew that Bakura didn't like to change the way he saw things. Especially when it came to the Pharaoh.

"It is a little out of character," Tea agreed. "I wonder what's bothering him."

"Coughpubertycough."

"You're not going to let that go, are you," Ryou sighed. Bakura just smirked and leaned back against the wall. Tea blinked.

"Um...okay... How're we getting there?" she asked. The whitenettes blinked in unison. They hadn't thought about it.

"Uhh... Bakura?" Ryou requested with a nervous smile. The spirit just shrugged back. Ryou sighed.

"We could ask Kaiba if he'd take us," Tea offered as they walked into the den where everyone sat down.

"Kaiba?! Are you feelin' okay Tea?" the blonde asked looking Tea over. She waved it off.

"That would be nice, but maybe Mokuba would be a better idea. I doubt Kaiba would care about my friends," Ryou agreed. Tea called KaibaCorp and proved Ryou wrong.

Not only was Seto Kaiba agreeing to take them to the airport and back, he also said that Joey would get passenger side front—"so that he could stick his head out the window".

Ryou was happy. Bakura was pleased. Tea was excited. Joey was a mix of annoyed at being called a mutt again and excited to meet Ryou's friends. Tea tried to call Yugi, but the boy didn't answer. Tea left a message so that he would know what was going on, but they wondered if Yugi was even a little worried about them. It wasn't like they were replacing him or anything. Ryou needed help—that was all. Yugi of all people should have understood that.

But Yugi was either being stubborn, or just not understanding. Tristan had come to yell at them when they tried to talk to Yugi after Halloween. And they had heard that he went after Ryou as well.

Tristan could be scary when he wanted to be. Tea didn't like that very much. But maybe once this Unknown business blows over, things will go back to how Tea liked it—and maybe Bakura would be included more often. Both Bakuras.

Yeah, that would be nice.

---====----====----====

Another three hours passed before Kaiba's limo pulled up to Ryou's house. Ryou was wearing a hat to cover his hair and a jacket to cover the bandages. Mokuba rolled down the window to talk to the group before the limo driver opened the door to let them in. Joey didn't get to ride shotgun—surprise surprise—but he did get a window seat. Ryou and Kaiba talked about what was going on, and what the Fentons were like and who all were arriving.

Kaiba was secretly wanting to meet these people. They did seem a little stranger than he was accostumed to—magic is not that hard to believe in, to be honest. Ghosts were a little too out there—but they were smart people. He could ask the mother—Maddie-san—about proof of their existence, but he didn't really want to.

Ryou warned him not to get Jack-san started on anything because he had a habit of blabbering on about whatever. And the man was proud of it. How sad. And then there was the daughter, Jazz. She didn't seem very nice.

Once Seto Kaiba met them, then he'd pass judgment on if they'd ever see him outside of tournaments and school.

And the limo drove on.

---====----====----====

I'm bored now.

Ryou: Why?

I had to let Riku go. His mom called him home. *pouts*

Bakura: *sarcastically* Poor Kris... the world hates you.

Oh I _know, _right?

Ryou: *Starts backing up* Um, maybe now would be a good time to review?

Aww, do you miss the lady that gives you hugs?

Bakura: I don't.

No one cares what you miss, Kura.

Bakura: *mutters bad things*

Ryou: Bakura!

Bakura: What?

Ryou: Nothing.

Review please! Ryou wants a hug from someone other than me... *cries*


	16. Arriving Duels

And here's the long awaited 16th chappy! Thank babybisser for this update! I probably wouldn't have gotten around to it if they hadn't asked.

* * *

Chapter 16: Arriving Duels

Kaiba's limo pulled up to the entrance of the airport before the group of five stepped out—with Ryou thanking the driver—to walk inside and wait about twenty minutes for the plane they wanted to arrive.

Ryou sat in a chair while Tea and Joey chatted with Mokuba over something. Ryou was more or less doing his best to not give up the fight against the body's demands. The body wanted to sleep, but Ryou wanted to make sure the Fentons and their friends got here safely.

Ten minutes now. Kaiba's ignoring everyone and Ryou's wearing a hat to cover his white hair.

The last time Ryou had been in such a public place—school, mall, and the occasional game store don't count as public, apparently—he had been kidnapped by his fangirls. He didn't want to be kidnapped again. He'd barely made it out alive the first time!

Now, as to who was coming... Maddie-san and Jack-san, Danny, Jazz—joy—Marik—Ryou wanted an apology for his arm, since it wasn't Bakura's fault the kid had trust issues—and Danny's friends. This has fun written all over it.

To be honest, he wasn't very happy about meeting back up with Marik. But at least the fever was gone now. Maddie-san didn't really like it when someone was sick. Ryou fidgeted with his hat for a moment, really hoping that no one recognized him.

Five minutes. The plane is landing and rolling up to the building. Ryou stood up to wait closer to the door his visitors were going to come out of. Joey and Tea stood with him.

People were coming off the plane now. Ryou looked in the crowd for a giant blob of orange, or blue. He saw a dark haired girl wearing all black arguing with two adults that lived on the other end of the color spectrum as they came down the walkway.

"—**Won't let you keep telling me what to do**!" the girl seethed.

"**Sammy-kins**," the blonde woman pleaded, "**we wouldn't be good parents if we let you run off like that!"**

"**Yeah, It said so in the latest issue of Parents Weekly**," the blonde man wearing a sweater-vest concluded, lifting up an issue of said magazine. Ryou winced at the outfit. He leaned over to Tea.

"I didn't look like that when I wore a sweater, did I?"

"Iie, you were much cuter," the brunette responded back. They watched as the family—what else could it be?—shouted at each other in rising fits of anger while more passengers departed as quickly as they could. Except for some familiar faces, and some unfamiliar.

Ryou took a deep breath before walking over to the family and obvious friends.

"Ryou!" the adult red had cried before the whitenette found himself wrapped in her arms while she squeezed the life out of him for a moment.

"**M-Maddie-san! C-Can't breathe**!" Ryou stammered in English, his British accent attracting the quarrelling family's attention. Maddie let go.

"**Sorry, Ryou,"** she apologized. The youngest unfamiliar face walked up to him. Tucker, if memory served.

"**Hi, I'm Tucker Foley,**" the boy introduced, holding out his hand to shake.

"Ryou Bakura," Ryou answered, shaking the boy's hand. Tucker turned to Tea.

"**Hel-lo pretty lady**!**" **he whistled, reaching for her hands. Tea looked disgusted.

"**Not on your life**!" she said, her voice heavily accented, slapping his hand away from hers. Joey stood next to her, his eyes daring the boy to try something like that again. Tucker, catching the hint, hid behind Maddie.

"Gomenasai, Tea, I didn't know that he was like that," Ryou apologized, hoping that Tucker's display didn't affect what they thought of Danny or his family. The angry girl from before moved to stand next to Danny, who Ryou just noticed.

"Eh, daijoubou. Got it all the time when I started middle school," Tea said. Ryou smiled. His eyes flashed red for a moment before turning to the new girl.

"**Since that is Tucker,**" Bakura said, "**that makes you Sam! Am I right?**" Sam nodded, albeit reluctantly. The ancient spirit threw his arm around her shoulders and his other arm found Tucker. "**I have a feeling we're going to be good friends**!" He kept his light's voice and tone, so he wouldn't be found out if the Fenton's were as observant as he was told. Marik walked over and pulled Bakura away from the two teens.

"What is it?" Bakura hissed at the Egyptian.

"You're being friendly, you're hanging out with the Pharaoh's friends—without the Pharaoh—and Kaiba's here, what in Ra's name is going on here?" he hissed back, making sure no one could hear them. Bakura heard Tea introduce herself to the Fentons.

"Look, Marik, right now I'm...befriending the fanclub because as long as I am, then they aren't hanging around the Pharaoh's mini-me. Yugi's stopped talking to His Royal Pain, and If I play my cards right, I'll get the Millennium Puzzle without a fight," Bakura explained. "All that and... They're helping me keep the body alive." Yeah, Marik would so totally understand his reasoning. By keeping Ryou alive, Bakura can interact with the outside world.

Marik nodded.

"By the way, Yadonushi wants you to apologize for his arm. He'll duel you if he has to," Bakura explained. Marik groaned.

"Fine. He'll get a duel. But I'm not apologizing." They turned to listen to the 'party going on behind them.

"**My name is Joey Wheeler and**... and I forgot the rest," Joey said sheepishly. Tea bopped him over the head while Kaiba shook his head, muttering about how 'astounding it is that they could teach a dog that much'. Of course Joey got mad, but I digress. A swarmy businessman walked up to Bakura.

"**I am Vlad Masters, and I have heard so much about you, Mr. Bakura**," the strange man said, holding out his hand. Bakura didn't need the Ring to notice that something was wrong with this guy. Bakura held up a hand in greeting—something he'd seen Ryou do many times—not wanting to touch this guy, before opening his mouth.

"**I somehow doubt that, Masters-san. And just Bakura, if you don't mind**," the whitenette answered. The old man's smile faltered at missing the chance of shaking hands, but the smile came back strong.

"**Well then, 'Just Bakura', why don't we stop beating around the bush and tell me who you are? I'm quite interested in magic, you see, but your friend here wouldn't tell me anything about it**," Vlad explained. Bakura shot a glance at Marik, who mouthed 'power'. Bakura nodded minutely.

"**I am truly, very sorry, Masters-san, but this power cannot be used by just anyone. It can destroy everything if you were to try to attempt it. So just give up**," the boy answered before moving past him to talk to Danny. Marik walked with him, sticking out his tongue as he passed the entrepreneur.

The whitenette and the blond stopped short of their goal, though.

"**Why didn't you TELL me your friend knew THE Seto Kaiba!" **Tucker was pleading excitedly. Said CEO, however was 'not' hiding behind Joey, who was looking pretty scared, but also frustrated. Danny looked very embarrassed. Tucker went off on a tangent about all the different technological advances that Kaiba alone had spurred, even about some things that Bakura hadn't even been aware of. Kaiba said that all of that information was only on his computer, with four passwords on it and had even asked if the kid had hacked into his computer—to which Danny had answered about the possibility being most likely—and Kaiba vowed to change the password.

"Alrigh', let's go!" Joey announced cheerfully, forgetting that half of the people he was hanging with couldn't understand him. He started walking back towards the limo. Kaiba sighed while Mokuba ran to catch up to the blond boy.

Sam had started another argument with her family, by the way. That held them up for a few minutes before Mr. and Mrs. Manson called their own limo and left.

* * *

The ride was a peaceful one—Joey and Ryou on either side of Kaiba and Mokuba to keep away from the hyper-active teen with the technology addiction. Marik and Ryou had already promised to show him up close and personal the Duel Disks, but Tucker just kept trying to talk to them.

While Ryou and Marik talked about the duel—i.e., where it will be held, what's at stake (For Marik, he had to swallow his pride and apologize, but for Ryou he had to hand over the Millennium Ring)—Tucker was still determined to talk to Kaiba, but said brunette was doing his best to ignore the crazy stalker fanboy. Joey, Mokuba, and Danny were talking, Danny in slightly broken Japanese, while everyone else was listening to Tea. Téa was doing what she did best—she was telling them about the wonders of friendship, in English, of course. Sam and Tucker didn't know a word of Japanese.

Ryou looked out the window as they passed the Kame Game Shop.

/Must be lunch time/ Ryou commented. Yugi was sitting on the front steps, staring at nothing. /Do you think he and the Pharaoh made up?/

//Maybe. Only one way to find out// Bakura answered as he took control.

The limo stopped at the whitenette's request, leaving Bakura to walk over to the game store. Yugi looked at him before looking away.

Then Yugi's amethyst eyes widened as soon as he registered that it was Bakura and not Ryou standing there.

"Ba-Bakura," the boy squeaked. The spirit of the Millennium Ring raised a pale eyebrow. He expected Yami to have taken over as soon as he had been noticed.

"Are you still blocking him?" Yugi didn't answer. Bakura sighed.

//Hmm, do I steal the Puzzle or don't I//

/Bakura! Don't be mean! They're just going through something!/ Ryou yelled as he nearly decided to take the pendent.

//Yes, _mother_// Bakura answered sarcastically. Sometimes he really hated it that his light had to be so..._nice. _The semi-psycho (gotta love em!) whitenette thought for a moment. He had stopped for a reason, right? But...what was it? Couldn't have been just to talk to the Pharaoh's brat and not steal anything from him—wait!

"You're coming with me, Shrimpy," Bakura commanded. "You never did see _Ryou_ duel—so now you will. With everyone else." Yugi flinched back as Bakura firmly gripped the thirteen-year-old's arm.

"But--!" he tried vainly to disagree, hoping that Bakura would let go so he could run away. Obviously not talking to Yami had bad consequences.

Bakura smirked as Yugi weakly fought him off. Survival camp would have done the boy good—if there hadn't been any evil spider-people to worry about. Oh well. What's done is done, as they say.

Bakura dragged the spiky-headed boy down the street and set go of his arm as they came to his house.

"Stay here," he ordered as he went inside and grabbed his Duel Disk. The PSP sat on the coffee table, _taunting_ him. Bakura stared at it a moment before leaving.

Not a moment later, he came back and pocketed the system, looking around to make sure no one was around to see his moment of weakness.

"Just until I finish the game," he muttered as he walked out, whistling as he strapped his disk to his arm. He made sure the PSP was still in his pocket as he used the Ring to find Marik and where the Fentons were staying with Yugi in tow. Poor thing.

* * *

Bakura leaned against a nearby tree as he watched the rather large group and waited for them to notice him. He saw that the adult Mansons were back and arguing with whoever would listen about how their daughter wasn't being a 'very good girl' and stupid stuff like that. Bakura thought she was being a rather loyal friend to travel halfway around the world for her friend. He saw Kaiba and Mokuba off to the side, chatting with Sam and keeping as far away from Tucker as possible without appearing rude—mostly for Mokuba's sake. Kaiba couldn't have honestly cared less—who was fortunately driving Marik up a wall about how the Disks work. Poor Marik was convinced it was magic that worked the tech, not that he was talking. He switched with Ryou as Marik managed to separate himself from Tucker.

Marik walked over and threw his arm over Ryou's shoulders. He noticed Yugi but didn't say anything as the small boy seemed uncomfortable.

"**How about we get this Duel going? I wanna hurry up and win your Ring,**" the Egyptian explained cockily. In English for just about everyone's benefit. Joey could fend for himself. Ryou's eyes narrowed at the boy.

"_**I'm**_** going to win, Marik. I know how to duel," **Ryou said, pulling away from the blond's embrace. He walked a considerable distance away as Marik loaded his own Disk. Danny had grabbed Yugi first chance he got and had gotten the boy to talk to him. Yugi seemed to be a little less nervous about being around them and settled for watching the duel with the others. Joey sat down next to him with Tea behind them.

"Duel!" they called as their Disks activated and they drew.

"**I'll go first**," Ryou announced as he drew his first card.

Marik: 4000

Ryou: 4000

'_Hmm... Headless Knight, Lady of Faith, Pot of Greed, Spirit Message 'N', __Spirit Illusion__, and Sangan. Which to use... Oh! I know.'_

"**I play the Magic card Pot of Greed and draw two cards**!" He did so. Just Desserts and Gravekeeper's Curse. He picked Gravekeeper's Curse (800/800) and set it facedown on the board. When Marik attacked it, the monster would show Marik why he shouldn't mess with crazy guys with long white hair. Not that he was crazy, of course. Oh how Ryou loved his deck. "**Your turn**!" Ryou called cheerily.

Marik looked at Ryou with incredulity. He shook his head at the rather immature display the other had given. Ryou was never like this, at least not in the limited time Marik had been around him. He shook it off and drew his card.

"**I play Vampiric Leech (500/1200) in attack mode**!" He called, placing the effect monster on the disk. Ryou blinked. But it only had 500 attack points... What was he doing? Tucker was speechless, on the other hand.

"**Too...much..."** and he fainted. Everyone ignored the fallen boy in favor of watching the duel. Yugi glanced at the techno geek, wondering if he was alright, but by the looks of his friends he must do that sort of thing all the time. So he joined the rest of them in watching, curious as to how Ryou dueled.

"**Uhh, Marik? Are you sure you want to do that**?" Ryou asked as he looked at the creepy worm thing. Most of the spectators were gagging at the insect.

"**Of course! I doubt you drew anything good, since you used that magic card. Leech, Attack!"** The worm attacked the facedown card, losing the match by 300 points and then Marik watched as his life points dropped another 500. "**Wha--? Why did it go down more?" **

"**The special ability! When Gravekeeper's Curse is flipped face-up, the opponent loses five-hundred points of direct damage**," Ryou explained. Marik growled.

"**I use my monster's special ability and discard one card to switch battle positions,"** Marik announced as he pulled a card out of his hand and slid it into the slot not occupied by the deck. He pushed his card so that it was sideways. Ryou shrugged it off and drew his next card.

Ryou: 4000

Marik: 3200

'_Okay, I have Gravekeeper's Curse out, but it won't be long before he plays something stronger. I should get rid of his Leech before he has a chance to sacrifice it.'_ Ryou placed Mirror Wall in his hand and grabbed Headless Knight.

"**I summon my Headless Knight****(1450/1700)!**" Ryou watched as the helmetless armour appeared with unsheathed sword to stand beside his Gravekeeper. A strange chuckle rebounded around, seemingly coming from the torso opening. Shivers ran up many of the spectator's spines—Joey included—while Ryou just stood there, completely at ease with the headless specter.

Marik looked at it and seemed to be disturbed at the fact that the armour was animated and headless—hence the name. Ryou picked up on the disturbance and smiled, unintentionally appearing like his yami.

Deciding not to switch his Gravekeeper's position, he attacked the other boy's monster, destroying it. Marik flinched a little. He didn't honestly believe it when Ryou said he knew how to duel. He'd never seen Ryou so much as touch a card before.

Marik scowled at the smile, knowing that he was just trying to throw him off. He drew his card. He set a card and placed a facedown card in his magic/trap zone. He didn't talk much for that turn. Ryou's smile had turned into a slight frown as he drew his own card. He grabbed Sangan(1000/600) and Mirror Wall.

"**I** **set one card facedown and set one card in defense mode,**" he said, mimicking his opponent. "**Knight**?" the monster turned to him. "**If you would**," he asked, gesturing to the facedown. The Knight readied his sword and ran forward, slicing through the card image. A blob of silver appeared—scattered, mind you—before it reformed. Revival Jam bobbed a little (1500/500). Ryou pouted a little. He always pouted when he was mad. He waved Marik on, who drew his card.

"**I summon Makyura the Destructor in Attack mode**!" he called as the anther blobby thing arose and took the form of a person (1600/1200). "**Hmm... I think I'll have it attack your Gravekeeper! It's creeping me out**," Marik admitted. The humanoid slime monster rushed forward and sliced clean through with its claws. Ryou pouted again. Then shrugged. A trap card rose, revealing a Mirror.

"**You activated my trap, Marik. Mirror Wall raises my Knight's attack by 800 and lowers your Makyura by half, thanks to your attack. Now our monsters have to battle!"** He said as the stats changed accordingly. The monsters lunged at each other, and the slimy humanoid fell into a puddle of goop. Marik scowled. He was getting his butt kicked! By someone who doesn't even duel! And they still had all of their life points left! At this rate, he was going to have to apologize!

Ryou: 4000

Marik: 1750

Ryou inspected his hand. Diabound, Lady of Faith, Spirit Message 'N', Spirit Illusion. Not that bad. Maybe he should throw Lady of Faith out in defense mode. She would be a good block for now. Not to mention, the Mirror Wall he had used was paying off. His Knight was the strongest monster on the field, but with Revival Jam in play, that didn't matter very much.

"**I play one card in defense mode. Your turn**." Tucker had woken up somewhere around the time the trap was triggered. Upon seeing the Headless Knight in perfect detail, Tucker passed out again, fully believing that it was real and not wanting to meet it.

Marik drew his card and added it to his hand, trying to come up with a strategy quick. All he had on the field was his facedown and his Revival Jam. He had a feeling his jam monster wouldn't last too much longer. What if Ryou had a card that would destroy it? He picked up a card.

"**I summon Boganian in attack mode (1300/1000)**," he said. A floating eye with arms and a crossbow. Ryou looked at it, before realizing what was going on. The facedown must be some way of protecting his monster. "**Boganian takes away 600 of your life points for every one of my standby phases**!" The eye bobbed up and down a bit, looking at the Knight. "**But I'm going to use it to attack... whatever that is**!" Marik announced, pointing at the facedown Sangan. The fiend appeared before the eye shot it with its crossbow, destroying it.

"**That was too easy, Bakura! Don't you have anything stronger**?" Marik taunted, purposely calling Ryou Bakura to not confuse the audience. He had said 'Bakura' on the phone that one time he had talked to 'him', so they would be a little confused if he had started calling him Yadonushi when he was around. After all, most people did call him Bakura. Only Yugi called him Ryou if Marik remembered right.

"**Don't worry, you're about to meet one! Sangan's special effect is that I can take a monster with 1500 attack points or less from my deck and add it to my hand,**" Ryou explained happily as he took Gravekeeper's Guard from the deck. He showed it to Marik.

He shuffled his deck easily as Marik fumed silently. He had walked straight into that trap! How did he not see something like this coming? Why hadn't he taken the chance to look at Bakura's deck when they'd met? It would have helped a heap right now!

"**Take your turn**," Marik ordered as Ryou replaced his cards. Ryou smiled.

"'**Kay**!" He drew his card, ignoring the confused and worried looks he was receiving from the crowd. None of them had really seen him duel before. It was all tactics. While Bakura was super scary, Ryou was actually pretty childish. It really knocked people off their high horses when they think they're playing against someone who doesn't seem to be 'all there'. They generally lose their strategy, making it so much easier to crush them. Not to mention, the cards he uses are completely contradictory to his 'personality', confusing his opponents further.

Ryou looked at his cards, whistling the Final Fantasy victory tune as he chose the magic card he had just drawn.

"**What the heck are you doing**?" Marik was completely out of the loop. Ryou just smiled at his opponent. It wasn't Marik's fault his home lacked the essentials that was video games.

"**I play the magic card Raigeki! That means that your monsters are destroyed!"** the whitenette announced cheerfully. As the green card image rose, lightning rained from the heavens, decimating Marik's monsters. Marik's tanned face paled a little. "**Next I'll sacrifice my facedown Lady of Faith to summon Diabound Cornel!"** A large pure white half man half snake creature appeared at Ryou's proclamation. Ryou dropped the childish act for a bored one. "**I really thought you would be a tougher opponent—Yugi said you were, anyways.**" Marik scowled at the insult, shooting a glance at the short boy seated in the small group.

Wait, insult? Yadonushi didn't insult people! If he was dueling Bakura then this duel didn't count! But there was no way he could call the boy out on it.

Ryou's face perked up again.

"**But no matter. I'll use my Diabound to win now! Helical Shock Wave, please**!" Ryou ordered. The man/snake creature stretched its snake tail and fired a beam of light at Marik, who hurriedly pushed a button on his disk. Silver strings shot out around him, forming into a large silver blob that absorbed the attack and Ryou watched as his life points dropped by 1200 points, leaving him with only 2800. He looked at the other side of the field, surprised to find a giant blob that resembled a spiked club (0/3000). Ryou pouted again. Underneath the blob was a pink card, indicating that it was a trap card.

"**I guess that my Metal Reflect Slime had something to say about that**," Marik answered. **"This is a trap card that can be used as a defense monster! The downside is that it isn't treated as a monster, so I can't tribute it or attack with it**. **Not that I would anyway, but still.**"

Ryou glared at the blond, still pouting. Bakura wasn't a very happy camper. If thoughts alone could kill, there'd be nothing left of Marik. He was about to win, darnit!

"**I'll still win**," Ryou vowed. "**Your turn."**

"**Suuure you will, Bakura, sure you will**," Marik answered as he drew a card. He frowned at it. Not the card he needed to actually win the duel. He pursed his lips as he set a monster. "**Go**."

Ryou drew.

Ryou: 2800

Marik: 1700

This had to be Ryou's lucky day. He had drawn Mystical Space Typhoon. Since the silver blob on Marik's side of the field still counted as a trap card, this would work. Then he could use his Knight and Diabound to attack. That facedown monster shouldn't cause too much trouble. If it does, having two Diabounds would be beneficial, right? Well, that's what Ryou was going to try.

"**First, I want to say 'goodbye' to your defense, and this card should work,**" Ryou announced as he slid the newly acquired magic card into its slot. Marik's jaw hit the ground at Ryou's luck.

"**You're cheating! You have to be**!" Marik cried out as the whirlwind took his best defense away. Ryou held up a finger and tsked while wagging his finger.

"**Now, now, you should know that I don't like that. Cheating leads to losing your soul and sometimes dying! I'm playing by the rules**," Ryou said, sounding just a tad bit like Bakura. If only in vocab. He knew that he was probably really confusing people by his personality switching. Which was a good thing. They would have to get used to it if they were to hang around him on a daily basis. Maybe he should warn them about a "roommate" he had... Nah. Not yet. It probably wouldn't be a good thing. It might be better if they never 'meet' Bakura in the actual sense of the word.

Only three people from the American group knew that cheating could cause catastrophes—they just didn't know what context Ryou was using. It wasn't like Ryou knew that Danny had very nearly cheated on a test that would ruin his whole future, right?

Well, Danny had NOT told him that story. And it was to be left alone to rot in the back of their minds.

"**You can't possibly have drawn that legally! There's no way you could have**!" Marik continued ranting. He went on about various cheating methods he'd probably seen in movies or something as Ryou slid his Spirit Illusion into a slot, having discarded his Mystical Space Typhoon. A facedown card appeared on the field in the same spot that his trap was inserted in while Marik yelled his head off, now cursing in Arabic and Hieratic. Ryou was a little surprised that he could understand most of it. Maybe it came with having a yami that said most of the same things?

"Marik," Ryou tried to catch the blonde's attention. "MARIK!" Amethyst eyes turned to him, surprised. **"Now that I have your attention, I think it'll be fair now that I'm using my Diabound to attack your facedown**," he ordered easily.

Unfortunately it was another Revival Jam. Bakura swore loudly in his soulroom. Ryou rubbed the side of his head as the noise assaulted his 'ears'.

/Bakura! Please stop, it's not helping!/ He heard Bakura growl before the link was silenced so that the thief could swear in peace.

Outwardly, Ryou was panicking. He didn't have much chance to draw anything else in his deck that would destroy it. He looked at his hand. He bit his lip as he waved Marik on.

Maddie watched Ryou closely. She thought it was odd that Ryou would take on such a childish approach to this, when in the video she saw of him, he was acting completely opposite. She looked for anything that would say that he _was_ being possessed as Jack had suggested. So far nothing too out of the ordinary. Though she did see him rub his head when the strange sliver goopy thing appeared.

Tucker was still out cold. For another few moments, at least.

Marik smirked as he looked at his hand. But his eyebrow twitched. He had a monster he could summon, but it was useless against Ryou's.

"**I set one monster. Take your turn now."**

Ryou nodded and drew. He had seen Marik's reaction to his cards and knew that whatever it was that he had set wasn't doing him any good. '_Dian Keto hmm? I'll use it then!'_ Ryou slid the magic card into a slot.

"**I play Dian Keto the Cure Master which allows me to gain a thousand life points**," the whitenette said, relaxing as the warm feeling from the magic washed over him.

Marik gritted his teeth. He was losing and he knew it.

"**I'll use my Knight to attack your facedown. Attack**!" The Headless Knight rushed forward and swung its sword, piercing the card, and revealing a second Makyura the Destructor. It squirmed in pain before shattering. Marik swore viciously in his head. He pulled the card free from his deck violently as he started his turn. He glared at it like it was the cause of his imminent defeat.

"**Grr. I don't have anything."** Ryou looked a little sad at this as he drew. He smiled widely. Lady Luck must love him today!

"**Perfect! I summon Death Calibre Knight in attack mode (1900/1800)!"** a horseman galloped from somewhere behind the whitenette, the horseman pulling on the reins in front of him, choosing to stand next to the Headless Knight, who bowed respectfully. The horseman gave a nod in acknowledgement.

Tucker had woken up again and was again mesmerized by the realness of the holograms. He watched the exchange between the Knights and forgot that they were holograms again.

"**They're so real**," he gasped. He was ignored, naturally. Yugi shot Danny a 'is he okay' look. Danny nodded back.

"Great," Marik muttered. Ryou flashed a smile.

"**Yup, Death Calibre, please attack his Revival Jam**!" Ryou ordered. The new Knight galloped over to the annoying blob and slashed through.

"**What are you doing?"** Marik asked. "**Have you forgotten Revival Jam's ability? It doesn't matter how much you attack it, it'll keep coming back**!" As he spoke, the blob was about to reform. Marik was stunned, however, when a sword shot through the card image and the goop before his monster was destroyed. He looked up and noticed the Horseman was missing.

"**You were saying? I'm sorry, but Death Calibre Knight doesn't like repeaters that much, you see, and the thought of having to fight that thing again made him mad**," Ryou said sweetly. Marik gulped as he looked at the two remaining attacking monsters. Ryou smiled. **"Hmm, which to choose... I know, Diabound? Would you end the duel please?"** the snake man seemed all for it. Marik didn't have anything on the field to protect him. The snake fired his shot of death at Marik.

The blond Egyptian screamed as the lightning type attack hit home. When the smoke cleared, Marik was laying on the ground, dazed. Before anyone could walk over to help him up, he was standing up swearing loudly in every language he knew.

"Marik! Will you please stop?" Ryou pleaded while holding his ears. He checked to see if they were bleeding. They weren't. Yet.

Marik continued his tirade, stooping to name-calling. Ryou made sure he remembered the whole duel and made to walk away, still holding his ears. The blond grabbed Ryou's arm harshly, not caring that Ryou had sensitive skin. Or that it was the arm that had been stabbed not four/five months prior. He gave a soft cry of pain, trying to stifle it by biting his lips. The phantom wound stung badly.

"You cheated, I know you did!" Marik countered. Ryou looked back with his bloody-brown eyes. Both he and his yami were feeling the exact same thing—if only Ryou's was lighter.

"No I didn't. I played strictly by the rules." Amethyst eyes narrowed.

"I'm not upholding my end when you don't play fair!" Marik seethed. Ryou sighed. He managed to somehow pry his arm free. Marik opened his mouth again until he noticed something was wrong.

Ryou was walking away, slightly proud of himself. Marik noticed this, but it wasn't Ryou's sudden pride that was wrong. He moved his hand to his belt where the Millennium Rod hung. If it had been there, that is.

"Wha--?" he said, looking around him to see if he had dropped it. He spun around once before catching sight of a flash of gold in Ryou's hands. "Damn you Bakura!" Ryou's eyes looked innocent.

"What is it, Marik?" The Rod was hidden behind his back. The Egyptian held out his hand. The onlookers that understood what they were saying didn't understand what was going on. What could Ryou—innocent little Ryou—have done?

"Give it back, Thief." The whitenette tilted his head.

"I think you have me confused," Ryou answered. Joey held back a smirk, understanding what Ryou meant. 'Confused with Bakura' was what Ryou wanted to say. Of course he couldn't say that while the Fenton's were around.

"Grr, Bakura... I'm warning you," Marik growled. "You have until I count to three to give my Rod back." Ryou blinked. His eyes flashed crimson for a moment, though of course no one noticed. He shook his head with a smirk. One that Maddie thought looked very out of place on Ryou's sweet face.

When Ryou showed no movement to hand over what was rightfully Marik's, the blond growled again.

"Three!" He called before throwing himself at the shorter teen. Ryou's eyes widened as the blond came close enough to take off his head. Bakura ducked and stepped out of the way as Marik narrowly missed him. Marik just barely caught himself, saving himself from falling on his face before he turned and tried again.

Bakura held out the Millennium Rod, using the Ring to tap into the Rod's power. The eye glowed on the head of the staff and Marik's eyes blanked.

Bakura switched back with Ryou for what he won.

"**I think you have something to tell me, Marik**?" The more people that understood what he was saying, the more embarrassing it would be for the blond Egyptian. He pulled back the Rod a little, and followed Bakura's instructions on how to use the Item. Marik bent down to his knees and apologized, Ryou making him use just his voice. No double timber. Which was very good.

Satisfied with the apology, Ryou released Marik from the Rod's influence, showing just how mad the blond was with being used by his own Item.

"Damn you!" Marik swore in Egyptian. Ryou giggled.

"People say that a lot to me," Ryou replied happily. In Japanese. It made him strangely happy to see Marik so riled up. Maybe Bakura was finally rubbing off on him?

Marik stood up and reached for the Rod, to which Ryou reacted by holding the Item away from the blond while keeping one hand on Marik's chest. Yugi ran up to try to keep the peace between the two Item holders.

Marik ignored Yugi and pushed Ryou down and pinned him to the ground, trying to reach his Rod. The whitenette stretched his arm to keep it away. Ryou managed to roll over so he didn't risk breaking the PSP and pushed the Rod out of Marik's reach. Yugi sighed at the immature show. Ryou never seemed to be the type to act like this!

The rest of the group watched as the tiny thirteen-year-old tried to get the two fifteen year olds to act their age.

It wasn't going too well, so Danny decided that he was bored enough to help.

He easily picked up the Millennium Rod and caught the two Item holders' attention.

"Give that back!" Marik yelled as he abandoned Ryou and leapt at Danny. Danny tossed the Rod at Yugi who stumbled as he caught it. He fell on his back as Marik tried to strangle the raven haired halfa.

"H-Hey!" Danny choked out as he tried to pry the blond's hands off. Yugi ran over with Joey and Tristan to help. Though all Yugi could do was yell at them to stop fighting.

While the stronger boys were preoccupied with saving Danny, Ryou stood up and brushed himself off before making sure his PSP hadn't been damaged in the scuffle. Luckily it hadn't—Marik would be mummified alive if it had. Bakura was very scary like that.

Yugi handed Marik back his Item to make him let Danny go while Joey and Tristan protected Yugi from whatever Marik might do to him.

* * *

And there it goes.

I hope I didn't (coughdidcough) scar anyone too badly with Ryou's sweetly sadistic moment! It was fun to write and funny to watch! (my head is a television. With voice activated remote. Yeah, loony bin here I come! Lol.)

It'll be a while before the next chapter. I wanna write some on my other stories before setting myself on this one. I am a horrible procrastinator when something doesn't work out right, and trust my life to NOT work out right. Not only am I hopelessly addicted to yet another anime with explody-stuff and giant robots but I'm gonna write stuff about that too! AND I'm moving again!

Oh well. I guess somethings can't be helped. Review please!

Bakura: *Is making double sure his PSP is alright*


End file.
